(NAFB) – Poor weather caused second-corn crop yields in south-central Brazil to drop to the lowest level in ten years.

Reuters says after drought and frost combined to spoil much of the crop, Brazilian farmers are now expecting to harvest 51.6 million tons, almost 19 million tons below the 70.5 million they brought in during the last harvest.

“Failure of the 2021 corn crop, planted with much delay due to the later soybean harvest, was the result of the lack of rain in most of the producing areas in April and May,” says Brazilian agribusiness consultancy AgRural. “The frost starting at the end of June and lasting until now reduced yields and also caused quality problems.”

The spoiled second-corn crop hurt Brazil’s export prospects and increased the need for corn imports. The cold and damp weather over the previous weeks also limited farmers’ harvesting pace, with growers collecting just 46 percent of their corn in south-central Brazil through last Thursday, below the 61 percent they’d harvested at the same point in 2020. Second corn is planted after soybeans are harvested and is the country’s main corn crop. It accounts for approximately 70-75 percent of all production in a given year.