After a series of climatic adversities, including frosts, droughts and excessive rains, this year's wheat harvest in Paraná is expected to close almost 1 million tons below what was initially projected, according to data released this Thursday by the State's Department of Rural Economy (Deral).
The State, the main Brazilian wheat producer, is expected to harvest almost 2.3 million tons of the cereal in 2016/17, according to the body linked to the Paraná Department of Agriculture. In August, the estimate was 2.6 million tons and, before the weather problems, 3.1 million tons.
In the 2015/16 harvest, wheat production in Paraná was 3.48 million tons, one of its largest harvests.
Paraná accounts for a large part of the 5.2 million ton production expected in 2017 by the National Supply Company (Conab) for the entire country, which imports most of its needs.
Adversities began in July, when severe frosts affected 30 percent of the area susceptible to losses. At the beginning of August, the drought worsened losses, while rains at the beginning of the harvest made the situation even worse.
Deral's new estimate takes into account a productivity of 2.40 thousand tons of wheat per hectare, in an area of 962 thousand hectares – so far, the harvest reaches 65 percent.
Source: Agrolink
