About Brazil

[luisvieira]

On Sunday, Expointer, the largest agricultural expo or farm show in Brazil, end with the best perspectives for Brazilian farmers. Expointer, which is held in Esteio (15km from Porto Alegre), set a record of machinery purchases: nearly US$ 1.2 billion of sales in 9 days. For the president of the Federation of the Agricultural Associations of Rio Grande do Sul, Carlos Sperotto, it reflects more "a huge anxiety" than anything.

Many analyts think that this may mean a sign that Brazil will have a record soybean crop. According to Céleres consultancy, the country wil harvest over 76 million tons in the season 2012/12. Productivity is likely to grow to an average of 4.7 tons per hectare.

In Rio Grande do Sul, nearly 50,000 hectares will be shifted from rice to soybeans and major government investments were announced for farmer to support irrigation. Israel's Netafim has a possibility of building a factory in the state.

The bad news could potentially come from the state of Mato Grosso, in the Center-West part of the country. It is the second week of dry weather and high temperatures there. A few cities are 120 days without any drop of rain.

[Mizzou_Tiger]

many found out this year..........doesn't matter how green your paint is.........or how big your planter is.........

if it doesn't rain and is 100+ for days on end...........mother nature trumps all..........including really good flat black dirt.........

thanks for the report...........

I am sure China is eyeing SA soya crop on an hourly basis...........

[marketeye]

Luis,

I understand that Brazilian farmers already have sold 40% of next year's crop. What will weigh heaviest on Brazil's infrastructure:

1) seed availability for planting

2) transporting the harvested crop by truck

3) bottlenecks at the ports

4) or other?

What was talked about at the farm show regarding these issues?

Mike

[luisvieira]

Mike,

They made an announcement about a railway to transport grains until the port of Rio Grande, but the specifics didn't come out. They promised to reduce the transportation cost in US$ 250 million. My bet, however, is that nothing will be done to improve signicantly logistics here in the next five years. All constructions take a lot of years. All the ports are all controlled by the government and I think they will remain slow and priceful - unless the ports are privatized.

[Mizzou_Tiger]

Luis,

How are the up coming Olympics affecting infrastructure money flows from the government...........????

thanks

[luisvieira]

The Olympics will happen in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. A lot of federal, state, and local investment is going on there. Due the soccer Wold Cup in 2014, many urban roads are being built in other cities as well. However, they are all slow and overprice. Studies say the World Cup will cost 10 times more than previously thought. I don't think it will help famers much. In the near-term, Brazil will stay behind the US in competitiveness.

Brazil is huge. Some areas may benefit a lot but not all.