Brazil’s grain crop harvest is expected to reach 143.5 million tons in 2010, up 7.2 percent from 2009, according to an official projection released recently by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. According to IBGE data, the harvest expected for this year has the following regional distribution: South Region, 59.4 million metric tons (+13.3%); Central West, 49.8 million metric tons (+2.1%); Southeast Region, 16.5 million metric tons (+2.1%); Northeast Region, 13.9 million metric tons (+19.3 %) and North Region, 3.9 million metric tons (+1.7%). In the first evaluation for 2010, Paraná recovers its position as the main national producer of grains, surpassing Mato Grosso by 0.6 percentage points. In 2009, Brazil’s grain crop production fell by 8.7 percent from the previous year to total 133.3 million tons.
