Despite dry weather at the start of the planting season, Brazil is headed for its second record-setting soybean harvest in a row, said USDA analysts. In its monthly World Agricultural Production report, the USDA forecast the 2020/21 crop at 133 million metric tonnes, up nearly 6 percent from last year’s 126 million tonnes.
Brazil is the world’s largest soybean grower and exporter. The United States is second in both categories. Growers are forecast to plant a record 38.6 million hectares of soybeans in Brazil, and the yield is expected to average 3.45 tonnes per hectare, the second highest on record.
The USDA lowered its forecast of the U.S. soybean crop to 4.170 billion bushels, down by 98 million bushels from its October estimate due to a season-ending drought. With strong demand for the crop, the U.S. stockpile at the end of the current marketing year would be the smallest in seven years.