Market News & Headlines >> IMEA Hikes Mato Grosso Soy Crop Estimate

Mato Grosso, Brazil's largest soybean producing state, remains on track for a record large crop despite harvest delays there due to excessive rains, with IMEA, the state agricultural institute, raising its yield and production forecasts on Tuesday.

IMEA pegged the state’s 2022/23 soybean production at 42.82 million metric tons, up 3.3% from its December estimate of 41.46 million tons and up 4.8% from last year. The new IMEA crop estimate, however, is only slightly above the official January crop estimate for Mato Grosso of 42.53 million tons from CONAB, the supply department of Brazil’s agriculture ministry.

IMEA estimated planted soybean area in Mato Grosso at 11.811 million hectares (29.18 million acres) unchanged from its December estimate and up 2.92% from last year. IMEA raised its estimate of the state’s average soybean yield to 60.43 sacks per hectare compared with its December estimate of 58.51 and last year’s yield of 59.38 sacks per hectare.

A sack of soybeans weighs 60 kilograms or 132.2 pounds and equals roughly 2.2 bushels of soybeans, so a yield of 60.43 sacks per hectare is equal to roughly 53.8 bushels per acre.