Agriculture in Paraguay

Soybeans

Soybeans are the main product of Paraguayan mechanized agriculture and the main producer of foreign exchange for the country. According to Capeco data, the expansion of the sector was so large that the area planted with Soybeans has tripled in the last 20 years.

During the 2014/2015 campaign, soybean production in Paraguay was 8,153,587 t on an area of 3,264,480 ha. On the same area, the harvest in 2015/2016 was around 9,216,937 t of oilseeds. In other words, a yield of, respectively, 2.498 t/ha and 2.823 t/ha, which makes an increase of about 13% per hectare.

The 2016/2017 soybean season reached a record 3,147 t/ha, totaling 10,664,613 tons on 3,388,709 ha of planted land.

Paraguayan soybeans are intended mainly for the foreign market, with an average of 75% for export, remaining only 23% for industry and 2% for seeds. These figures have been maintained in recent years.

With the policy of the Argentine government, applying new export taxes, the margins of Argentinian producers were reduced, which consolidated the interest of Paraguayan soybeans.

Soybean cultivation developed in the eastern region of Paraguay on land previously used for breeding and resulted in the displacement of the Paraguayan cattle herd in the Chaco region.

Stevia

Stevia is a plant native to Paraguay used by the indigenous Guaranies to sweeten drinks. The leaves of the plant were dried and used to sweeten “mate”, teas and medicines. The stevia leaves sweetening power is 30 to 45 times greater than sugar. It was in 1899 in Paraguay that stevia was first scientifically documented under the name eupatorium rebaudianum by Moises Santiago de Bertoni. Stevia is a naturally occurring zero-calorie sweetener. The effects of stevia are attributed to the stevioside it contains.

In 2011, the European Union granted final regulatory approval for the use of stevia sweeteners in foods and beverages. The stevia market is booming. Faced with growing demand, the cultivation of stevia has become the Eldorado for investors.

Sesame

Sesame cultivation, which appeared in the late 1990s, is relatively new to Paraguay’s agriculture sector.

The production is located in the northern zone of the eastern region. Sesame is grown mostly on a small scale by family producers who sell directly to exporters. The industrialization of sesame in Paraguay is very nascent, since nearly 60% of production is exported and the remaining 40% is used for national consumption.

Sesame cultivation has a social importance and has produced a reorientation of the policy of intervention and compensation of agriculture from the year 2006. Along with cotton, it has become a priority for family farming incomes.

Sesame has seen even more penetration, given the revenue it has produced, mainly to these producing families, thanks to the selling price and the growing existing demand in the international market for this product, when it has available organic certification.

79% of the area used for sesame is in properties up to 5 ha, 8% in plots up to 10 ha and the remaining 13% is in properties over 10 ha.

Sugar cane

The geographical location, the type of soil and the climate make sugar cane one of the most important crops in Paraguay.

In the 2015/2016 campaign, the production of sugar cane, both conventional and organic, was 6,708,000 tons on 120,000 hectares. The departments of Guaira, Caaguazú and Paraguarí are those which concentrate the greatest percentage of production. Sugar cane is used to produce food sugar, ethanol, cane honey and is also used as fodder for animal feed.

Sugar is one of Paraguay’s traditional export products. In 2016, the volume of exported sugar was 111,129 tons.

Paraguay is the world leader in exports of organic sugar, and fair trade.

Chia seeds

Chia, “salvia hispanica”, is an herbaceous plant of the lamiaceae family, native to Mexico. Chia , which were a staple of the diet of many ancient peoples of Mexico, were also used for medicinal purposes and as offerings to the Aztec gods.

After being ignored for centuries, these seeds have attracted the attention of nutritionists for their high fat content (25-38%) with a high content of alpha-linolenic acid, from the omega 3 group. Since the late 1990s, a cash crop has developed in several parts of America and Australia, to supply seeds to health food stores in developed countries.

Since chia is very sensitive to frost, commercial cultivation has only developed in the tropics and subtropics. It is found between latitudes 20°44’N and 25°05’S, in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Australia, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

This seed is one of the “new” food species, although it has always been in use in the countryside of central and southern Mexico as well as in Guatemala, where it is made into drinks. Seedlings require moisture to germinate, but once set the plant requires only a limited amount of water.

Culture can be traditional or organic.

The main export markets for Paraguayan chia are the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.

Corn

Paraguay has become the world’s seventh largest exporter of corn and exports to over thirty countries, thanks to good, high quality production.

The multinationals LDC, ADM and Nidera lead the ranking of exporters.

Corn production in Paraguay has achieved the strongest growth in agricultural products in recent years.

The 2015/2016 maize season:

• Sown area: 838,768 hectares
• Production: 4,000,000 tons
• Yield: up to 10 tons per hectare (with irrigation)
• Exported: 3,392,032 tons of corn

For the 2016/2017 season, the area sown to maize increased by around 20.3% to reach 1,009,226 hectares.