Paraguay soy sowing seen up despite weather doubts

21 | 10 | 2010

AGROINFO - Paraguay’s soy farmers plan to plant 2.8 million hectares of soybeans in 2010/11, up slightly from the previous year when they gathered a record harvest, growers said on Wednesday.

The landlocked, South American country is the world's fourth-biggest supplier of the oilseed, although it trails far behind neighboring Brazil and Argentina -- the No. 2 and No. 3 exporters, respectively.

Paraguayan growers are concerned about dry conditions associated with the La Nina weather anomaly and they hope the next weather forecasts will give an improved outlook for the coming months.

Plentiful rains in the 2009/10 season boosted yields, helping Paraguay produce a record 7.4 million tonnes on a sowing area of 2.6 million tonnes.

"Last year was an exceptional year in terms of production, the weather was very good, and this year we don't know yet ... but farmers are always upbeat," Simona Cavazzutti, from the Unicoop Cooperatives association, told Reuters.

Soy is Paraguay's biggest export earner and the last harvest has stoked overall economic growth in the impoverished country. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 12.2 percent in the second quarter of the year as soy exports jumped 143 percent year-on-year.

The start of 2010/11 sowing was marked at a ceremony in the town of J. Eulogio Estigarribia, some 200 km (125 miles) east of the capital, Asuncion. It will continue until early December.

Sowing of varieties with a short growing cycle is advancing well and should be finished in the coming days, said Luis Cubilla, a technical advisor at the CAPECO exporters chamber.

"Farmers have taken the precaution of sowing more of the early-seeded varieties because we thought there would be more of a shortage of rain in October. If we maintain this level of rainfall, we think we're on the right track," Cubilla said, adding that CAPECO was waiting for the government's next weather report.

"Apparently we're not going to see such a strong drought and that is very reassuring for the whole sector. If that is the case, we're going to have a normal harvest."

Paraguay's Agriculture Ministry has not yet forecast soy output, but it warned in August that La Nina could halve average rainfall through February.

Source: Reuters

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