BRAZIL GRAIN HARVEST FACES STORAGE PROBLEMS
Storage problems with Brazil's record
grain crop are likely to result in losses of about five mln
tonnes, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said.
    Ministry spokesman Leonardo Brito, speaking from Brasilia,
told Reuters he believed that about five mln tonnes of this
year's estimated crop of 65 mln tonnes would be lost.
    He said part of this would be the normal loss inevitable in
harvesting, but that most of it would stem from storage
problems.
    Brazil has a storage capacity of 66 mln tonnes,
theoretically sufficient for the crop.
    But Brito said that the storage capacity was badly
distributed. The states of Sao Paulo, Parana and Rio Grande do
Sul had between them 70 pct of the nation's capacity, but were
responsible for only 50 to 60 pct of production.
    The biggest problems are concentrated in the Centre-West
growing regions, where rising production has outpaced storage
capacity.
    Brito said the Centre-West, whose crops include soya and
maize, had between 30 and 40 pct of the nation's grains
production but only 20 pct of its storage space.
    In addition to the poor distribution of storage units,
there is the problem that too much of the capacity is geared to
storing grain in sacks, while not enough is suitable for
storing loose grain, Brito said.
    Finally, there is a shortage of lorries to transport the
crops.
    The sheer scale of the task in transporting the record crop
has been evident from television reports, which have shown
enormous queues of lorries waiting outside granaries.
 Reuter
