February 20, 2014
Brazil aims to become largest soy producer in 2014
Based on calculations by state-run Compañia Nacional de Abastecimiento, or Conab, which forecasts the 2014 grain harvest of around 193 million tonnes, of which 90 million tonnes will be soy, President Dilma Rousseff said that Brazil this year will become the world's largest soy producer.
"It will be a new production record that will show the power of Brazilian agriculture, which is very important for growth, for internal supply, for exports and for the trade balance," said Rousseff on her weekly radio programme.
In recent years, the Brazilian economy has grown at rates below 2% at the same time that exports have gradually fallen, just like the country's trade surplus.
The government is betting on an expected rebound in agriculture to begin to balance those indicators, but that also depends on the development of infrastructure that will help to improve supply capacity and the shipment of production from the fields to the cities and ports.
Rousseff recalled that the government has increased financing for the agricultural sector and has made available over the next five years a credit line of BRL25 billion (US$10.4 billion) for the construction of silos.
She also cited a huge public and private investment programme to improve and expand the network of highways and ports, whereby the government expects to reduce the costs of shipping agricultural products.