In Brazil’s Paraná state, frost destroys corn, wheat and sugarcane, and more may come

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The next few days will mean stress for many crops in Paraná. The frost returned this morning and thermometers should again record persistently low temperatures, including for parts of São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Minas Gerais, according to the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet).

The phenomenon reinforces what was already affected by frosts two weeks earlier.

In Brazil’s second-largest corn-growing region and largest wheat-growing region, temperatures dropped below zero in several regions of the south, southeast, and center, where the two kinds of cereal compete for dominance.

Wheat is already fully planted, at a delicate moment for its development and with a significant increase in international prices due to the mismatch between supply and demand.

In the areas around Guarapuava, there was a minimum of 5 degrees below zero.

In the west, temperatures also reach frost indices that occupy a large area in which the corn was quite punished and with a consolidated tendency to the second harvest (up to 18% lower productivity). Now at the beginning of the harvest.

And in the north and northwest, with good participation of the sugarcane crop, all weather institutes have also registered temperatures close to zero.

However, the sugar cane has already been severely affected, especially in the lowlands, according to the management of Alcopar, an association of companies in the sugar and energy center of Paraná.