Produção agrícola
Estimate indicates record harvest of soybeans
March 13, 2026 09h00 AM | Last Updated: March 14, 2026 11h24 PM
The production of soybeans is expected to reach a record figure in the time series. But that is not a surprise, for the January estimated already indicated that 2026 would overcome previous years in terms of output. But the projection of February adds 0.4% to the previous figure. The total estimated figure for soybean increased to 173.3 million tonnes in the year, against 166.1 million tonnes in 2025.
That is part of the Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production (LSPA), released every month by the IBGE. The result of this study pointed an increase of 4.3% in the comparison with the volume expected for this year with the result of 2025. The estimate shows that the area planted with soybean must increase 0.8% in 2026 and reach 48.2 million hectares. The average yield per hectare must increase 3.5% from the previous year and reach 3,600 kg/ha.
The Agriculture surveys manager, Carlos Alfredo Guedes, explained that this good performance is related to the recovery of production in some states: “Rio Grande do Sul, especially, was greatly affected last year by scarcity of rain and high temperatures. These climate conditions also affected other states such as the north of Paraná and south of Mato Grosso do Sul.”
According to the survey, Paraná, with an output of 22.3 million tonnes, is expected to have the second biggest volume harvested this year, with an increase of 4.3% from 2025. Mato Grosso do Sul expects to produce 15.0 million tonnes, with an increase of 14.0% from the total of last year. Rio Grande do Sul had an estimated production of 20.8 million tonnes for this year.
The biggest national producer of this oilseeds, mato Grosso estimated an output of 48.5 million tonnes for 2026, a decrease of 3.3% over the volume harvested in the previous year, whereas planted area is expected to increase by 1.9%. A decrease of 5.0% in the average yield by hectare is estimated for the state.
Projection for harvest of cereals, legumes and oilseeds increases
The estimated national harvest of cereals, legumes and oilseeds, in 2026, was 344.1 million tonnes, a volume 0.6% lower than in 2025 (346.1 million tonnes). The projection in February rose by 1.4 million tonnes (0.4%) a result that had been expected in the previous month for this year. The area to be harvested in 2026 was estimated at 82.9 million hectares, with an increase of 1.3 million hectares compared to the harvested area in 2025, an annual increase of 1.6%.
Rice, corn and soybean are the three main crops in the survey. Together, the three items represent 92.8% of the estimated production and account for 87.5% of the area to be harvested. From the previous year, the projection indicates an increase of 0.8% in the area planted with soybean and of 2.4% with corn. The rice output is expected to decrease, 6.3%, in 2026. In terms of production, the estimate is an increase of 4.3% for soybean; of 8.0% for paddy rice and of 5.3% for corn (an increase of 12.2% in the 1st crop and a drop of 9.1% in the 2nd crop). The expected output of corn was 134.3 million tonnes and that of rice wa calculated at 11.6 million tonnes.
South Region must record biggest harvest increase in the year
Among the Major Regions, the volume of production of cereals, legumes and oilseeds had the following distribution in the projection for 2026: Central West, 167.9 million tonnes (48.8%); South, 95.2 million tonnes (27.7%); Southeast, 30.5 million tonnes (8.9%), Northeast, 28.9 million tonnes (8.4%) and North, 21.5 million tonnes (6.2%). The estimated production of cereals, legumes and oilseeds recorded an annual positive change in the South Region (10.3%) and Northeast (4.2%), and a negative change in the Central West (-6.0%), Southeast (-1.9%) and North (-3.5%). As for the monthly change, there was increase in output: North (0.2%), Central West (0.3%), Southeast (1.1%) and Northeast (2.3%), whereas the South recorded a decrease (-0.1%).
In terms of distribution by Federation Units, Mato Grosso led, last month, as the main national producer of grain, with a participation of 30.2%, followed by Paraná (13.9%), Rio Grande do Sul (11.7%), Goiás (10.7%), Mato Grosso do Sul (7.6%) and Minas Gerais (5.5%). Together, these states represent 79.6% of the national output.
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