Brazil summer grain crop to outgrow storage capacity for first time in 20 years

SAO PAULO: Brazil’s 2022/2023 summer grain production will outgrow total storage capacity for the first time in 20 years amid expectations of a record soybean harvest, according to government data obtained by Reuters from Conab, the food supply and statistics agency.

Brazil will harvest a combined 189.5 million tonnes of soybeans, corn and rice in the summer, while it has total storage capacity for 187.9 million tonnes, the data shows. The situation highlights Brazil’s historical logistical bottlenecks which this year may be exacerbated by a large winter corn harvest.

It also challenges the new administration’s plan to revive government rice, beans and corn inventories to guarantee food security and a local livestock feed supply.

“It is possible that at the peak of the soybean harvest, in the second half of February, March, we will have the old problem of not finding warehouses,” Stelito dos Reis Neto, Conab’s storage chief, said in an interview.