Aécio Amado
Reporter - Agencia Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – Brazilian 2005 agricultural crop had a reduction of 5.51%, or 6.5 million tons, when compared to 2004. A total of 112.715 million tons of grains were harvested in 2005, against 119.294 million tons in 2004, according to information released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) this Thursday (5).

The IBGE said that climatic phenomena were the main responsible for the production reduction. He recalled that the South region of the country lost its national grain production leadership because of the drought. Last year, the South region was responsible for 34.4% of the national grain production, while the Central West region produced 37.6%.

For 2006, the IBGE estimates, based on current data, that there will be a 13.2% production increase, when 127.612 million tons of grains will be produced.

Translation: Andréa Alves