Brazil expects another bumper grain harvest

Brazil reaped a bumper grain harvest of 188.2 million tons in 2013 and is banking on new record output this year, official statistics showed Thursday. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said this year's harvest should reach 189.5 million tons, with soybean, corn and rice making up 93 percent of the total. Brazil last year displaced the United States as the world's top soybean exporter, according to the National Confederation of Agriculture. Soybean output totalled a record 81.6 million tons in 2013 and should rise 10.5 percent to 90.2 million tons, according to IBGE.