Newsletter AgriBrasilis - April 2nd
Almir Torcato is the corporate manager at the?Association of Sugarcane Farmers of the West of the State of S?o Paulo –?Canaoeste , with a degree in law from Anhanguera Educacional, specialist in strategic agribusiness management from Esalq, with an MBA from Saint Paul Business School.
What factors motivated the 2023/24 sugarcane super harvest?
After going through harvests with adverse situations, with drought, frost, fires, we can say that this harvest was one of redemption. In 2023/24, we had a number of positive factors: good weather conditions, favorable prices, and decreasing input costs. These reasons justify an estimated production of 652.6 million tonnes. We are optimistic for the 2024/25 harvest, but it is likely that it will present more modest numbers when compared to 2023/24.
(Access the full article on the?AgriBrasilis ?website)
Media Partner Event:?16th International Conference on Precision Agriculture ?(July 21st to 24th, 2024 – Manhattan, Kansas, USA )
"The 16th International Conference on Precision Agriculture will highlight significant research and its applications in precision agriculture and showcase emerging technologies and information management for agriculture. It will offer oral and poster presentations and exhibits, as well as?discussions and exchanges of information on various aspects of precision agriculture." ( Kansas State University )
Argentina: “Dollars from agriculture?will not reach the expected levels. Prices of wheat, corn and soybeans have fallen a lot since June of 2022.?Decrease in soybean prices reaches around 45%, while that of wheat and corn exceeds 50%. This leaves the farmers with little chance for profitability, in a context of high withholding taxes, different exchange rates for exports and imports, bad weather, high rents and a lot of inflation”, said the economist and consultant Salvador di Stefano. Even so, according to the?Institute for Studies on Argentine and Latin America, net exports of agricultural products from Argentina are expected to reach approximately US$ 37.5 billion in the 2023/24 season. ( Salvador Di Stefano Consulting; Ieral)
Brazil: Mafra Group and the State of Minas Gerais Sugar and Ethanol Company – CMAA announced the JV Gr?o Pará Bioenergia to build a biofuels refinery in Reden??o, State of Pará, focusing on the production of corn ethanol.?Investments exceed US$ 400 million by 2029, and US$ 120.28 million will already be invested in 2024. (CMAA; Mafra Group)
In?January and February of 2024, Brazil?exported approximately 182 thousand tonnes of rice, a drop of 24% in volume?and 18% in revenue when compared to the first two months of 2023. Reduction is due to the rise in rice prices in the country, which made the Brazilian product less competitive abroad. ( Abiarroz )
BNDES approved financing for Be8, a biodiesel producer, for the?construction of an ethanol and bran plant from cereal processing in Passo Fundo, State of Rio Grande do Sul. The amount is US$ 146.1 million and US$ 100.1 million comes from the BNDES Mais Inova??o Program, a pioneering project in the country for grains destined for biofuel. “It will also represent an increase in the supply of DDGS meal for animal protein production chains, in addition to promoting investment in the development of genetic technology for the production of specific wheat for ethanol feedstock,” said Erasmo Carlos Battistella , president of Be8 . (Be8)
Cosan has?net income of US$ 472.6 million in the 4Q, compared to US$ 161.4 million in the same period a year earlier. Although the financial statement is not audited, the company said it “does not anticipate that it will be necessary to make material adjustments or changes to the information.” ( Cosan )
Chile:?INDAP and Fundación Telefónica Movistar launch a?digital literacy program aimed?to?farmers?in the country.?Since the end of 2021, the “Renacer Digital en el Agro” program has benefited around 300 people across the country. (Ministry of Agriculture)
Colombia: Colombia announces?reopening of its market for importing chicken and eggs from the USA?after months of negotiations. In August of 2023, the country banned the import of chicken and egg products from the US due to concerns about the possibility of avian influenza. In 2022, Colombia was the tenth largest market for US chicken, importing US$ 105 million. (ICA)
Peru:?National mango production fell 83.2%?in January of 2024, when compared to the same period in 2023, reaching just 30.5 thousand tonnes. Climatic factors led to the occurrence of anthracnose in Piura, the largest mango farming region in the country. ( INEI )
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Peruvian coffee exports?exceeded US$ 132 million in the first two months of 2024, an increase of 66% compared to 2023, with US$ 79.8 million. ( Agromercado_MIDAGRI )
Rural Federation of Uruguay warns of a problem of “exchange rate delay”, with the dollar worth 37.5 pesos, the lowest value in 8 months. According to the Federation, the?value of the dollar is “unsustainable for the productive sector”, and should be close to 58 Uruguayan pesos. “The situation of the sector is critical, given that in historical terms we are far below the level of equilibrium between the national currency and the dollar”, according to Milton Ramallo, economist at the Rural Federation. (Rural Federation of Uruguay)
Henrique C. Junqueira Franco is a partner and technical director of?Cropman ?– Intelligence in Soil Diagnostics, with a degree in agronomy from S?o Paulo State University, and a Ph.D. in soil from the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture.
Why is it necessary to map the soil?
Soil is the main explanatory variable of agricultural yield. Knowing it is key to modern and low-carbon agriculture. The technologies available until then, such as grid sampling, remote sensing, and yield analysis, were unable to deliver the necessary precision to a series of localized managements. The result is that, with little information about the different soils of the field and their transitions, farmers face an inefficiency in the use of inputs, with overdoses and underdoses, which will impact the yield obtained, so as not to reach the potential yield of each plot of the field.
(Access the full article on the?AgriBrasilis ?website)
Brazil:?AgroGalaxy?has avoided the early maturity of two?Agribusiness Receivables Certificate –?CRA issues, totaling US$ 130.47 million. The?company organized a meeting with bond creditors and obtained approval to be exempted from presenting leverage information, measured by the relationship between net debt and Ebitda. ( AgroGalaxy )
In the?past?five years, the?Brazilian biopesticides market grew 45%?in Compound Annual Growth Rate. Meanwhile, the agrochemicals market grew only by?6%. This information was presented by Embrapa at the opening of the symposium “Trichoderma: the most important biological control agent for plant diseases”. According to Paula Packer, head of Embrapa’s Environment unit, “Brazilian agriculture must be sustainable and we demonstrate this in several ways, such as through science-based biological control”. ( Embrapa )
Syngenta began its “barter” campaign?for the 2024/25 season,?with?available credit of US$ 1 billion. The company is betting on the “cashback” system to sell more pesticides, giving customers the possibility of participating in gains from rising commodity prices. Through the “Barter+” program, farmers will be able to “lock” the price of soybeans, coffee, cotton and corn in the exchange negotiation for pesticides, participating in a possible increase in the value of the commodity until the contract is closed. ( Syngenta )
Glyphosate prices showed a substantial drop.?“In March of 2023, the prices of the most used herbicide in the world exceeded US$ 5/kg (95%) in China, the largest manufacturer?in the world. In the Brazilian market, a kg of product reached US$ 9.03 to US$ 10.03. Now, 12 months later, prices in China are in the range of US$ 3.60/kg, and in Brazil, we see prices close to US$ 4.61 to US$5.02/kg”, according to Jeferson Souza, market analyst at Agrinvest Commodities. “About the future of glyphosate, opinions are very divided. Some still believe that prices could reach US$ 3.50/kg in China. In my opinion, it seems that we are close to the lowest possible value”.?( Agrinvest Commodities )
After the historic high records of 2022,?fertilizer prices are going through a period of stability. Rabobank predicts that sugarcane, coffee and citrus crops will consume more fertilizers due to the prospect of better margins. 2024 will demand caution from farmers, but the prospects for these crops are positive. ( Adufértil Fertilizantes ; Rabobank )
Koppert presented a project to expand its facilities in Piracicaba, State of S?o Paulo, which involves the construction of a new industrial park for the production of biological pesticides, with?an investment of approximately US$ 140.46 million.?(Piracicaba City Hall)
Latin America: Fertilizer consumption in?Argentina?reached 4.58 million tonnes in 2023, which represented a decrease of 4% when compared to 2022. Climate problems, mainly drought, are some of the factors that explain the decrease in consumption, in addition to international prices and governmental fiscal policies. Approximately?65% of the total fertilizers used in Argentina are imported. (Fertilizar Asociación Civil)
There is a shortage of phosphate fertilizers in?Argentina. “We started to see?a lack of phosphorus for some companies and in some regions, mainly in the south (in the Pampas region). This shows that suppliers are not buying because they are waiting to see the demand trends. This is due to the uncertainty in the development of the local market, the acceptance of these input/product relationships by the farmers and the international downward trend”. (IF Ingeniería en Fertilizantes)
“Among?all the major global agricultural players, only?Mexico is on the verge of approving a ban on glyphosate”, said José Escalante de la Hidalga, president of the Mexican Union of Pesticide Manufacturers and Formulators – UMFFAAC. “We consider this to be a mistake, as it will make national farmers less competitive: up to 40% of the production of grains and other crops could be lost if this herbicide is not available.” According to a statement from UMFFAAC, “the Mexican population will not have ‘better health’ with the ban on glyphosate. In fact, their health could be harmed because the farming costs of production will become more expensive and they [the Mexican population] will not be able to afford the increase in food prices”. ( UMFFAAC )