According to Brazil farm consultancy AgRural, farmers in Mato Grosso planted fewer soybeans than previously expected. A late start planting resulted in soybean acreage of 5.6 million hectares, which is down 2.3% from AgRural's October estimate.
However; AgRural predicts Brazil will have 22.4 million hectares of soybeans with a production estimate of 62.4 million metric tons. Most other analysts' estimates fall between 59 million and 61 million tons.