* Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) has updated its forecast in March for the 2023 harvest of grains, cereals, legumes, and oilseeds, predicting a record harvest of 299.7m tonnes (t), up 1.6m t (+0.5%) from the forecast predicted in February. This increase in the forecast from the previous month was mainly driven by a higher forecast for the wheat (+13.0%) and barley (+11.7%) harvests. In terms of contributions from each state, it is predicted that the central-western state of Mato Grosso and the southern state of Paraná will dominate the 2023 harvest, expected to contribute 30.9% and 15.7% respectively. The increased forecast for the national wheat harvest was mainly driven by figures from the wheat harvest prediction for Paraná, which rose 33.2% from February. With this expected increase in wheat, Ibge research coordinator Carlos Barradas suggested that the war between Russia and Ukraine, two major wheat producers, could be an opportunity to export more Brazilian wheat.