Palm | Kelapa Sawit

HAMBURG, Feb 14 (Reuters) - German Oilseeds analyst Oil World has cut its forecast of 2012 soybean crops in Brazil and Paraguay following drought in the two countries but raised its forecast for Argentina, it said on Tuesday.

Oil World said it had cut its forecast of Brazil's 2012 soybean crop to 69.5 million tonnes from 70 million tonnes estimated on Jan. 31 and 72.8 million it forecast in December.

Lack of rain means Brazil's crop would be well down on the 75.3 million tonnes it harvested in 2011.

Oil World also cut its forecast of Paraguay's soybean crop to 4.6 million tonnes from 6.0 estimated on Jan. 31 and 8.3 million tonnes harvested last year. The forecast cut was also made because of drought.

It raised its forecast of Argentina's 2012 soybean crop to 47.0 million tonnes from 46.5 million tonnes forecast on Jan. 31 and 52.0 million tonnes forecast in December.

This would still be down on the 49.2 million tonnes harvested in 2011 in Argentina.
Recent rain had helped Argentine soybeans, Oil World said.

The United States is the world's largest soybean exporter, Brazil the second and Argentine the third. Paraguay is a smaller exporter but its volumes are important to world markets.