Mato Grosso Beans

[bduke]

I heard today that the 2009 Soybean acreage in Brazil is expected to increase 5% at the most. The '08 crop cost about $235 US per acre and the'09 crop is expected to cost about $440 US per acre. They are estimating '09 inland prices at $10 US/bu.which is a break even of 44bu/acre. Apparently the "yield hurdle" will be similar to most years prior to 2008. I expect our hurdles will rise over '08 as well...i'm reluctant to run ours...Bill

[Hopperbin]

Is that 440 a cost per acre to grow the crop? If so then why the big increase?

[bduke]

Alot of the increase is due to increased costs, for example: 2008 production was about 1100 reais per hectare(approx 450 r/acre) at an exchange rate of 1:65 r/us$
2009 costs are estimated at 1800 reais per hectare (about 735r/acre) at an exchange rate of 1:90 reais/per us$.
The balance appears to be weakening reais....Bill