Brazil soy crop in good condition, consultancy says ahead of national survey

By Ana Mano

SAO PAULO, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Brazilian farmers are poised to reap a much larger soybean crop than last season in spite of dryness in southern parts of the South American country and a slow start to the harvest in the center-west region due to rains.

Growers in Brazil are on course to produce a record 153.4 million-tonne crop, agribusiness consultancy Agroconsult forecast on Wednesday, as it finishes preparations for a planned field expedition that will survey farms across 12 states accounting for 95% of national output.

Agroconsult said Brazil's average soy yields may rise to 59.2 60-kilo bags per hectare from 51.8 bags at the end of last season.

The estimate comes as Brazilian farmers begin to reap their new soy, allowing traders to start exporting their 2023 crop to countries like China.

"The outlook for the soy crop is good despite climate concerns related to the regularization of rains," Andre Debastiani, who coordinates Agroconsult's annual crop tours in Brazil, told a news conference.

In states like Rio Grande do Sul, scarce showers delayed soy planting, he said, raising questions about future yields and output.

However, Debastiani noted that rains have been more evenly spread in southern producing regions, which can help avert the kind of drought-related losses farmers endured last year.

Rio Grande do Sul's soy yields are estimated at 51.5 bags per hectare, a leap from last season's 27 bags, when a drought destroyed a lot of the plants, Agroconsult data show.

The prospect for Brazilian corn farmers is also positive, with the country's first-corn production seen rising by nearly 14% to 29.6 million tonnes in 2023, Agroconsult said.

If farmers plant their second corn on 17.5 million hectares (43.2 million acres), as expected, Brazil's second-corn production could be 101.3 million tonnes, some 9 million tonnes more than in 2022, it added. (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Paul Simao and Bill Berkrot)

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