Cristiane Ribeiro
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - June's estimate for the 2005 harvest of cereals, vegetables, and oil seed crops, announced yesterday (21) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), is 0.24% higher than the estimate made in May.

The difference amounts to nearly 280 thousand tons and is mainly due to wheat cultivation, which grew nearly 5% in the past two months. Nevertheless, this year's expected harvest, according to the IBGE, is 4.71% less than last year's total of 119,369 million tons.

Newton Alves, the manager in charge of the IBGE's Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production, attributed June's results to climatic improvements in the producing regions.

Among the 20 crops analyzed, nine presented positive results in the June estimates. The standout performers were potatoes (2.78%), cocoa beans (7.62%), and sugar cane (0.86%).

Translation: David Silberstein