BRAZIL GRAIN HARVEST FACES STORAGE PROBLEMS
  Storage problems with Brazil's record
  grain crop are likely to result in losses of about five mln
  tonnes, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said.
      Ministry spokesman Leonardo Brito, speaking from Brasilia,
  told Reuters he believed that about five mln tonnes of this
  year's estimated crop of 65 mln tonnes would be lost.
      He said part of this would be the normal loss inevitable in
  harvesting, but that most of it would stem from storage
  problems.
      Brazil has a storage capacity of 66 mln tonnes,
  theoretically sufficient for the crop.
      But Brito said that the storage capacity was badly
  distributed. The states of Sao Paulo, Parana and Rio Grande do
  Sul had between them 70 pct of the nation's capacity, but were
  responsible for only 50 to 60 pct of production.
      The biggest problems are concentrated in the Centre-West
  growing regions, where rising production has outpaced storage
  capacity.
      Brito said the Centre-West, whose crops include soya and
  maize, had between 30 and 40 pct of the nation's grains
  production but only 20 pct of its storage space.
      In addition to the poor distribution of storage units,
  there is the problem that too much of the capacity is geared to
  storing grain in sacks, while not enough is suitable for
  storing loose grain, Brito said.
      Finally, there is a shortage of lorries to transport the
  crops.
      The sheer scale of the task in transporting the record crop
  has been evident from television reports, which have shown
  enormous queues of lorries waiting outside granaries.
  

