August 16, 2013
Brazil's wheat output decline due to frosts
Brazil experienced significant losses in its wheat harvest this season due to late July frosts.
Parana, one of Brazil's top two wheat-producing states, will lose 33% of its current wheat crop that is maturing in the field, bringing current expected output to 1.9 million tonnes, farm secretary's statistics coordinator Carlos Winckler Godinho said.
Brazil is likely to expand its two-million-tonne, import-duty-free wheat quota that will mean local flour mills will buy even more North American wheat this season as leading foreign supplier Argentina grapples with its own tight supplies of the grain.
Kansas Board of Trade hard red winter wheat futures for September traded down slightly at £4.46/bushel (US$6.95) shortly after an announcement of the Parana state losses.
A new cold front that is likely to create frost again over Brazil's southern wheat crop was settling in over Parana on Wednesday (Aug 13), with temperatures likely to drop near freezing early Thursday morning. That could cause more losses to the crop.