After Brazil’s 2011-12 soybean crop was down 10% because of dry weather, Celeres states in its first forecast for the coming growing season that the Brazilian soybean crop could be as high as 78.1 million tons, up 17.8% from last year. Planting of hectares dedicated to soybeans, which is due to begin in September, is expected to be 27.14 million hectares; up more than 8% from 2011-12. This is the largest year-on-year increase in over a decade.