Brazil expecting another record crop year

While the U.S. government continues to be shuttered due to ongoing lapses in funding, the Brazilian government in South America recently released its first crop forecasts for the new marketing year.

The estimates weren't overly surprising to the markets and, like initial crop estimates in May in the U.S., are obviously far from final but nonetheless set the stage for another massive year of production for the world's No. 1 grower of soybeans.

Let's take a look.

Starting with soybeans, CONAB (Brazil's USDA equivalent) pegged production in the 2025-26 crop year at 177.6 million metric tons, up about 4% from last year's record figure. Planted area was seen at 49.074 million hectares, also up...