SAO PAULO: Delays in Brazil’s soyabean planting due to scarce rainfall may affect sowing of the country’s second corn crop, which is planted after the oilseed is harvested and represents about 73% of the South American output.

“There is a lot of risk for the (corn) crop,” said Antonio Galvan, head of the Mato Grosso state grain growers association, said in a telephone interview with Reuters on Friday. Only if rains last through the end of April, can Brazil have a good second corn crop, he said.

According to agribusiness consultancy Arc Mercosul, soyabean planting is at 46.9% of the expected area for the 2019/2020 season, way below the 61.6% level seen at this time last year and lower than the 49.2% five-year average.

Last season Mato Grosso harvested a record corn crop of 32.3 million tonnes, as farmers were able to plant within the ideal window, thanks to abundant rainfall, Galvan said.

Brazil, the world’s second largest corn exporter after the United States, collected some 100 million tonnes of the cereal in 2018/2019.

While the threat of collecting a smaller corn crop is real due to the weather, higher internal prices and demand in export markets remains strong, meaning farmers will plant the cereal anyway, Galvan said. The factor affecting planting intentions include the situation in the United States, the world’s largest producer of corn, where farmers are facing adverse climate conditions, he noted.—Reuters