Planting areas of rice and beans remain limited

With prices sky-high, the rice and beans-the food consumed by Brazilians-had strong impact on inflationary indexes and mistreated the household budget in this year. But the high will not be able to motivate a significant increase of both planting areas in summer 2016/17 this cycle. For rice, the first estimates indicate stability, while in the case of beans there are signs of an increase only modest, insufficient to meet the pent-up demand for the product.
Despite the ratings recorded-rice surged to 11.1 percent from January to July in the country, according to the IPCA, the carioca beans rose 150.6%, many producers are still inclined to sow soybeans and corn, commodities which have greater liquidity. "Maybe the planting of beans to be more profitable at the moment, but the stability of soybean and corn is bigger. These products have established futures, are involved in barter transactions and have guaranteed buyers abroad, "says Marcelo Eduardo Lüders, President of the Ibrafe (Brazilian Institute of beans and Pulses).
According to Ibrafe, the first of three bean yields 2016/17 cycle should occupy 1 million hectares in the country, 10% in 2015/16 (945 thousand). Yet, remember, will be an area Lüders 33% lower than the 2006/07 season summer, reflecting a decade "of lack of Government incentives and a deregulated market and forgotten".
The Ibrafe calculates that the cost of production of beans grow, on average, 11.3% in 2016/17, to 147 R$ a sack. "The highest elevation is on the acquisition of seeds. With the high prices of the bean, the seed also rose strongly, "says Lüders. As the harvest will begin only in January, he imagines that the prices of the sack of legumes will remain in the current levels (about 400 R$) in the coming months, with room only for small losses. If that expectation is confirmed, the consumer will continue paying about $ 10 a pound.
For rice, the horizon is darker. With the fall of the last harvest, estimated at 16%, many producers were undercapitalized and threaten to shrink the planting areas. "In some regions, the losses were almost totals. Many have had financial problems and have failed so far to renegotiate their debts. We estimate that 50% of the State''s producers do not have to offer guarantees to banks and get credit for funding now, "says Technical Director of Irga (Rio Grande do Sul rice Institute), Maurice Fischer. The Gauchos account for about 70% of the national production and the Irga calculates that the planting will occupy the same 1.1 million hectares in recent years.
Fischer says that, as with the beans, the rice market is "immature" and only few industries offer barter operations to pay for planting. "Without market future, few industries and fertiliser suppliers offer financial help to the farmer," he says.