Francisco Turra, former Brazilian minister of agriculture and president of the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA), said demand from big integrators, providing grains to farmers, is leaving a mark on the increase of wheat areas in Rio Grande do Sul.

In April, he commented, “JBS and BRF have already announced they are going to buy winter crops such as wheat, triticale and barley to use as feed. These companies have already done business for future delivery.”

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In line with data from the Federation of Agriculture of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Farsul), Turra said the area to be planted with wheat and other winter crops in 2021 could grow from 1 million ha to 1.4 million ha.

Embrapa: All costs of pig production grew

According to the pig and poultry research agency Embrapa Suínos e Aves, all 9 components that make up pig production costs have increase in the last 12 month in Brazil and the ICPSuíno index grew 44.5% since May 2020.

The largest increase was observed in feed costs, which increased 39.02%, followed by maintenance (1.36%); capital costs (1.14%), health (0.87%), others (0.84%), depreciation (0.69%); workforce (0.48%), transportation (0.09%); and electricity (0.02%).