Farmers are likely expand the area planted with soybeans in Brazil for a ninth consecutive year, local analysts and farm groups say, even though the price of the country\'s main export crop is down by a quarter from a year ago.

Earlier this year, some analysts said the combination of low soy prices and rising seed and fertilizer costs could lead farmers to forgo bringing new area into production in 2015/16 for the first time in
nearly a decade. Most have now changed their views.

\"I don\'t see how we could see a decline in soy area,\" said Luiz Fernando Gutierrez, soy analyst at Safras & Mercado. He said corn and cotton prices were even lower than soy. Gutierrez estimates a mere 2 percent increase in area when the next soybean crop is planted in September, which would be the smallest annual rise since 2006. That year was the last time soy area
13 decreased in Brazil, one of the few countries thought to have more land available to expand agricultural activity significantly.

The potential for even slightly more soybeans to reach the market early next year, after record crops from South America and the United States, could further lower prices. Brazil is the world\'s No. 2
soybean producer after the United States.

[Source: Caroline Stauffer, John C. Baize and Associates Weekly Newsletter. Read article - PDF]