Cargill’s Brazil unit stores corn outside silo as harvesting gathers pace

By Ana Mano

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – At least one unit of U.S. grain trader Cargill in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state is storing corn in open air outside silos, according to images posted on Twitter on Wednesday, reflecting the rapid pace of harvesting this season.

Footage of the corn, which resembles dunes of sand or a series of yellow pyramids, shows the product sitting outside Cargill’s Boa Esperança facility, close to the town of Sorriso.

Cargill said in a statement to Reuters that storing corn in open areas is a common practice, which may be done in regions where there is no significant rainfall, such as Mato Grosso.

The images, shot by a farmer in the area, suggest Brazil is poised to reap a large second corn crop after a bad 2021. They also highlight historic logistics woes.

An estimated 21,000 tonnes of corn is sitting outside the Cargill unit, Eduardo Vanin, a soybean analyst at Agrinvest, told Reuters. He cited a local producer’s estimate and posted the images of the corn on his own Twitter feed.

An additional 12,000 tonnes were expected to arrive in coming days, Vanin quoted local contacts as saying.

Regarding the images, Cargill said the corn is “in a temporary storage system that will be covered and will have a temperature control and go through an aeration process to maintain product quality.”

Vanin said there are various other reports of corn stored outside silos in Mato Grosso by companies other than Cargill.

Imea, a farmer-backed institute, said last week harvesting of Mato Grosso’s second corn reached a sown area almost double the historical average for the period.

Brazil’s second corn, planted after soybeans in the same areas, accounts for about 75% of national production. It is forecast at almost 90 million tonnes, up nearly 49% from last year.

(Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Sandra Maler)