Economy Frosts cause billion dollar losses in the corn crop and make food more expensive in Brazil

The Department of Rural Economy (Deral) of Paraná announced that the State, the second largest corn producer in Brazil, will harvest the worst corn crop (second crop or winter crop) in recent years. According to estimates by the agency, released this week, due to the occurrence of frosts, the projection for the off-season should be 6.1 million tons, almost half of the previous year's harvest of 12.34 million tons. Until the end of last month, the expectation was that the state would produce 9.8 million tons, considering the losses caused by the drought. The estimated loss is R$11.3 billion so far. In the projections presented this week, the agency points out that the break in the corn crop already represents a 50% reduction in the volume harvested compared to last year's crop production and a 58% reduction compared to expectations for the beginning of the season, when the total production was pointed at 14.6 million tons. With that, according to the department, the loss in this ...