Brazil's national agricultural agency Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (Conab) has cut its corn production estimate for 2019-20 to 100.56 million mt from 100.99 million mt in its previous survey, it said July 8.
In 2018-19, corn output in Brazil totaled 100.04 million mt.
The first corn crop output estimate for Brazil was raised slightly to 25.57 million mt in 2019-20, while the second corn crop projection was cut to 73.53 million mt from 74.23 million mt, the report said.
In Brazil, the first corn crop is planted during September-December and harvested in February-May, while the second crop is planted in February-March and harvested in June-July.
The second harvest is currently underway in Brazil and so far 27% of the planted crop has been harvested, Conab said on July 6.
The reduction in the production estimate is primarily due to irregular rainfall and severe drought in some of the key corn growing regions of Brazil.
Despite the latest downward revision to corn output, it would still be a record high, with a lower yield being offset by a higher planted area.
Planted area of corn, both first and second crop, was estimated at 18.44 million hectares in 2019-20 compared with 17.49 million hectares the previous season.
Conab also reduced its estimate for Brazil's 2019-20 ending stocks to 8.7 million mt, the lowest since 2015-16, from 9.9 million mt forecast last month.
The forecast for domestic corn consumption in 2019-20 was lowered to 68.43 million mt from the previous estimate of 68.52 million mt.
Conab kept corn export projection unchanged at 34.5 million mt in 2019-20, which refers to the period February 2020-January 2021.
Brazil exported a record 41.07 million mt corn in 2018-19, while domestic consumption was 65 million mt.
