Brazil's Ministry of agriculture will raise the minimum purchase price of corn by 28%

Introduction: Sao Paulo news: Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture said Wednesday that it will raise the minimum corn purchase price paid to corn growers in an effort to support domestic production, as the pressure from soybean planting has shrunk corn production In announcing the government's overall agricultural assistance plan for 2002-03 (July June), Marcus Vinicius pratini de Moraes, Brazil's minister of agriculture, said that the minimum option price for corn would be set at 9.5 Rio (US $3.32) / bag (60 kg / bag), 28% higher than the current 7.43 Rio Corn producers require 12 Rio / bag, and the current market price of corn in the grain center of agricultural production area is 13-14 Rio "Farmers need to grow more corn," pratini said "The government will take necessary measures to encourage farmers to expand the corn planting area," he added In Brazil, corn and soybeans are the main widely cultivated crops, and they often compete for the same farmland, but the price of a bag of soybeans is usually about 28-30 Rio, more than twice that of corn In 2001-02 crop year, the planting area of main summer corn in Brazil decreased by 10% compared with the previous year, reaching 9.5 million hectares (24 million acres), while the planting area of soybean increased by 16% year on year, reaching 15.8 million hectares But the continued expansion of Brazil's pig and poultry industry depends on a steady increase in corn production In recent years, Brazil's pig and poultry industry has grown rapidly, ranking among the world's major exporters Most of the corn in Brazil is grade III yellow corn, which is mainly used as animal feed Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture said it expects to produce 37 million tons of corn this year, compared with a record 41.5 million tons last year.