RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s grain harvest is expected to fall 7.9 percent this year compared with 2008, according to a Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, report released Thursday.

The IBGE said production is expected to come in at 134.4 million metric tons, up 0.8 percent from its previous forecast, issued in June. The more optimistic forecast was due to re-evaluations of the second harvest of corn in three states and new estimates for the output of beans, sorghum and the main winter crops.

Brazil produced 146 million tons of cereal, legumes and oilseeds in 2008, the IBGE said, noting that the area to be harvested in 2009 will total 47.2 million hectares (116.5 million acres), 83,946 hectares lower than last year.

The IBGE said that, of the 41 products analyzed, 18 saw a positive change in their July production estimate for 2009 compared with last year’s harvest.

The crops expected to perform best were oats in grain, advancing 20.5 percent, and second harvest peanuts, with a projected gain of 14.5 percent, while those forecast to fare the worst year-on-year were herbaceous seed cotton, declining 25.7 percent; first harvest corn in grain, down 15.1 percent; coffee in grain, off 13.5 percent; and third harvest beans in grain, down 10.8 percent. EFE