Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, suffers from natural disaster

Rio Grande do Sul State, in Brazil, suffers the biggest natural disaster in its recent history, with river levels surpassing the 1941 record.

Credit: BBC and Getty Images. Photo: Image of the center of the Capital of RS, Porto Alegre, taken by the water of Lake Guaíba

The State of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, is experiencing its worst climate disaster in recent history. A total of 341 municipalities were affected out of a total of 497 municipalities in the RS State, the vast majority of which suffered from uninterrupted rain in the last 8 days and, above the historical average, in some localities reaching more than half of the rainfall forecast for the year all.

Precipitation:

To get an idea of the volume of rainfall recorded in the State, some cities of Rio Grande do Sul Stare recorded more than half of the rainfall that usually occurs throughout the year, for example: the annual average usually hovers around a thousand to 1, 3 thousand millimeters, but Fontoura Xavier City, located in "Serra" (montain) of RS State, totaled 684 millimeters in last days. The municipalities of Caxias do Sul, Faxinal do Soturno, Nova Palma, Bento Gonçalves and Soledade also record totals above 500 millimeters. Santa Maria broke a world record for rainfall in one day, reaching 214 mm this past Wednesday, which was expected for the month of May between 130 mm and 180 mm.

Damage caused:

According to meteorologists, the damage that caused the weather phenomenon was a clash of hot air masses coming from the north with the entry of a cold front coming from the south, causing a thermal contrast, which due to the strong heat, causing intense rains. “This situation in Rio Grande do Sul is the "low atmospheric pressure system" that comes from the Pacific Ocean. It generates a "high pressure atmospheric system" in the Midwest and Southeast and the "high pressure atmospheric system" blocks the "low atmospheric pressure system". The "cold fronts" arrive there, are unable to pass and it rains too much, fed by a very large flow of water vapor that is coming from the Amazon and passes parallel to the 'Andes Mountain Range”, details Nobre, researcher at the Institute of Climate Studies at USP and co-president of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon.

The losses, at this moment, are incalculable, impossible to measure, and will leave consequences for a long time in the RS State: business structures, commerce, industries, agricultural complexes, grain and fruit crops, machinery and equipment, production vehicles, such as trucks, tractors and harvesters, not to mention a multitude of passenger vehicles, homes, affecting almost a million people.

Recuperation of RS State:

The State of Rio Grande do Sul declared a State of Emergency, which was immediately recognized by the Federal Government and will go through moments of great reconstruction from now on, after calculating the losses. Just to give you an idea of the extent of the damage, the Guaíba lake, which reached the mark of 5.30m above its riverbed, whose flood mark was 3m, will take around 30 days to return to its natural level, if the weather contributes and rain throughout the days.

Once this moment has passed, the Government will have to calculate the size of the damage left by the floods and, certainly, measures must be taken to prevent a tragedy of these proportions from occurring again in the future, especially due to the constant climate variations that the world faces. has been facing, investment in forecasting technologies, which are imminent.

Help to RS State:

The people of Rio Grande do Sul need your help to recover from this climate catastrophe, whose families lost everything they owned and were left with only the clothes on their backs, firstly because of the urgency to survive they left everything behind and, secondly, because upon returning to their Houses will have little to recover, the main thing now being shelter, because there will be more rain over the next few days and the arrival of the cold is expected (not least because the atmospheric blockage was overcome by the first and strongest cold wave).

Rio Grande Agrícola is aware of the situation of all those affected by the floods and wants to help in some way, being able to contribute with the help of its followers, friends, businesspeople who interact with us and know how much we preserve through honesty, ethics and transparency in our business and want to show solidarity with our people in order to contribute emergency aid to purchase urgent materials that thousands of people are in need of at this time.

The aid plan will be the purchase of emergency items: hygiene materials, cleaning materials, water and warm clothing (mattresses, blankets, clothes for the cold weather to come).

From now on, we will be grateful for any and all help that comes and, certain, we will account for every penny that comes in over the next few days.

Special RGA account for donations to victims in the State of RS, in Currency (BRL):

PIX por E-mail: doers@riograndeagricola.com.br

Special RGA account for donations to victims in the State of RS, in Foreign Currency (USD/EUR, others):

IBAN: BR2390400888012700130051480C1

Beneficiary: RIO GRANDE AGRICOLA S.A

Instructions: Identify yourself with email, contact and name so we can send legal documents.

Also, below, we have useful links so you can decide the best way to contribute:

Defesa Civil RS:

See how to donate on the RS Civil Defense website - Click here

Mensageiro da Caridade:

See how to donate to Messenger of Charity - Click here

Doações do Exterior - GZH:

See how to donate from abroad - Click here

Site do terra:

See how to donate via the Terra website - Click here

Jornal o Globo:

See how to donate via the O Globo newspaper website - Click here

Agência Brasil:

See how to donate via the Agencia Brasil website - Click here

Folha de São Paulo:

See how to donate via the "Folha de São Paulo" website - Click here

Brazilian harvest: Conab releases second survey of the 2023-2024 harvest.

Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil 20231115

Harvest 2023-2024: Conab's data - second survey of the 2023-2024 harvest

Rource: Conab - Companhia Nacional de Abastacimento

The second harvest survey carried out by Conab - Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento, published this month of November, brings numbers lower than the previous harvest, standing at 316.71 million tons, around 1.5% below the 2022/2023 harvest, which outside 321.41 million tons.

Soybean complex:

The highlight goes to soybeans, which will see an increase in planted area by 2.8%, estimated at 45.3 million hectares, compared to 44.07 million hectares in the previous harvest. Productivity increases by 2.2%, reaching 59.77 bags per hectare, compared to 58.45 bags per hectare in the 2022/2023 harvest. Estimated production was 162.42 million tons, around 5.1% higher than the previous harvest, which was 154.6 million tons.

Soybean: historical series of soybean production in Brazil

Rource: Conab and database of Rio Grande Agricola.

In the last six years, Brazil has had a great expansion in soybean production, with growth of 28.87% in the planted area, going from 35.149 million hectares in the 2017/2018 harvest to 45.295 million hectares in the current harvest. The growth in production in tons was also representative, from 123.25 million tons to 162.42 million tons in the current harvest, with a growth of 31.77%, guaranteeing a consequent increase in productivity, which on average rose by 4.49 % in the last years.

The comparative data demonstrated that, until November 10, the evolution of planting of the 2023/2024 soybean harvest was below the same period of the previous year, reaching 48.4% of the total planting, while in the previous harvest, at the same time, it reached 57.5%. The rainy climate in the south of Brazil and dry weather in the central and northern regions has hindered the smooth progress of planting and, furthermore, there are reports of areas being replanted due to excessive rainfall and also due to lack of rain, which is the case in the region Midwest.

If the numbers from this second Conab survey are consolidated, Brazil will have its largest soybean harvest in history, definitively consolidating itself on the international scene as the largest producer and exporter of the oilseed. However, to guarantee another successful year in soybean production, it will depend exclusively on climatic conditions, whose forecasts indicate that we will have a long way to go to consolidate another excellent harvest, as climate instabilities are benefiting the southern areas and harming the largest producing area, which is the Midwest, with an effect opposite to what happened in the previous harvest, where the southern states of Brazil suffered huge losses due to the drought, now bringing losses to the Midwest region, which suffers from high temperatures.

Corn complex:

Corn production for the 2023/2024 harvest is estimated at 119.07 million tons, around 9.48% lower compared to the 2022/2023 harvest, which was 131.54 million tons of cereal. The low price of cereal is one of the factors that weighs most on Brazilian producers' decision to plant more product, with the estimated area reduction falling by 1.119 million hectares, comprising half of the total reduction and the other half refers to productivity falling from 98.51 bags per hectare in the previous harvest, and to 93.89 bags per hectare in the current harvest.

Corn: historical series of corn production in Brazil

Rource: Conab and database of Rio Grande Agricola.

Conab - Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento, estimates an increase in domestic corn consumption for the 2023/2024 cycle of another 4.89 million tons, around 6.12% more than in the previous harvest and estimates a reduction of more of 17 million tons in Brazilian cereal exports for this new harvest, reducing from 55 million this year to 38 million tons exported next year.

As for final consumption and stock, which will be 8.86 million tons for the new cycle, it is not yet known whether the large-scale injection of wheat for feed was estimated, the harvest of which was damaged by the large volume of rain in the producing region, in southern Brazil. If low-standard wheat actually enters the feed market, it is possible that there will still be enough balance to export another 5 million tons of corn, increasing exports to quantities above 43 million tons by 2024.

Others cultivars:

Cotton:

Growth of 4.2% in the area to be seeded, totaling 1.733 million hectares of area to be planted and a forecast of cotton lint production of 3.039 million tons. Planting not started.

Rice:

Growth of 5.2% in the area to be seeded, with a production forecast of 10.8 million tons for the 2023/2024 harvest. Seeding at 52.3% until the report release date on November 10, 2023.

Bean:

Growth of 3.3% in the total area to be seeded, considering the first, second and third harvests, estimated at 2.8 million hectares for the 2023/2024 harvest. The estimated total production in Brazil will be 3.1 million tons for the current harvest. Bean planting in progress and varying depending on the producing region.

Wheat:

The 2023 harvest is still being harvested and is expected to end in December, with an estimated total of 9.6 million tons of product.

Production of other products:

Peanuts: 902.7 thousand tons.

Sesame: 174.2 thousand tons.

Sunflower: 80.7 thousand tons.

Castor bean: 74.5 thousand tons.

Sorghum: 4.357 million tons.

Oats: 1.106 million tons.

Canola: 103.2 thousand tons.

Rye: 9.1 thousand tons.

Barley: 513 thousand tons.

Triticale: 53 thousand tons.

Corn: USDA Supply and Demand Report

Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil 20231109

USDA: Corn Supply and Demand Report

Source: USDA and Rio Grande Agrícola database

In its new bulletin, the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) reports an increase in the production and productivity of American corn for the 2023/2024 harvest. With production of 386.97 million tons, rising 1.13% above the last report reported in October and, consequent increase in productivity reaching 182.96 bags per hectare, rising 1.10% above October.

The injection of an additional 4.3 million tons into the market, adjusts domestic production data, increases American exports to 52.71 million tons and also provides an increase in final stocks to 54.75 million tons, approximately 2.11% above that reported in October. This factor puts pressure on the Chicago Stock Exchange, bringing down its maturities, but not as much as what happened with soybeans, which had greater fluctuations.

At the end of today, Chicago maturities lost an average of 7 points, being quoted at 4.68 for December and 4.826 for March 2024.

The USDA maintained Brazilian production at 129 million tons and world stocks will be at 314.99 million tons, around 2.59 million tons more than reported in October.