Rio, March 4, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Agricultural production should grow 8% in 2004 over last year's harvest and attain 132,969 million tons. All the major regions of the country registered production increases in comparison with the 2003 harvest. Herbaceous cotton is the crop with the largest estimated increase (34.05%) for this year.

These data appear in the first estimate of the 2004 harvest, calculated by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), through the Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production (LSPA), released today in Rio.

The IBGE attributes the expectation of a new record harvest to the climatic conditions in the grain-producing regions. To explain the good performance of cotton, the Institute also cites the good returns for this crop, whose prices are more favorable than for other crops, both domestically and abroad. The Institute also points to the increase in cultivated area, which should grow 32.90% in 2004, for a total of 947,954 hectares. (DAS)