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Brazil corn production has potential to ramp up
A University of Missouri ag economist says Brazil’s second crop corn maintaining a 90 million metric ton production outlook in USDA’s latest supply and demand estimate is alarming.
Ben Brown said U.S corn producers could have more competition on the global market from South America on the way.
He tells Brownfield Brazilian farmers are gaining confidence in the durability of their second crop corn during a drought he compares to 2012.
“It would not surprise me if we [see] rapid increases in the next few years in Brazil’s second crop corn,” Brown said. “They’ve even started growing a third crop. Another crop behind full season soybeans, full season corn and now a third crop.”
Brown, with MU’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, said Brazilian farmers seem to be receptive to new management ideas allowing for larger corn production potential.
“In some places we can get wheat followed by soybeans, [meanwhile] they’re producing on a per unit, per acre, per hectare, how ever you want to look at it basis, at a rate we don’t do here in the United States,” he said.
Brown said while many corn importers still consider U.S. corn to have superior quality, the fundamental question is, what is the full production potential in South America and how long before they get there.
