Brazil's soybean crop next year could top 80 million metric tons, as high international prices encourage a surge in planted acreage, while weather likely improves, closely watched research firm Agroconsult said Tuesday.

Agroconsult's director, Andre Pessoa, told attendees at an agribusiness conference that Brazil's total soybean planting in the upcoming 2012-13 crop year could increase by up to 2.3 million hectares from this crop, to about 27.3 million hectares.

Increased soybean planting will likely be encouraged later this year by continuing high prices in international markets following a major production shortfall in South America, where the current 2011-12 soybean crop was hit by a severe drought. Prices for corn, which competes for acreage with soybeans, are seen softening on strong U.S. production, Pessoa said.

Weather, meanwhile, stands to improve as meteorologists project low odds of another La Nina phenomenon later this year. As a result, rainfall in Brazil's soybean regions should be normal or above normal, allowing grains yields to recover.

Brazil is the world's No. 2 soybean grower and exporter, with production from the recently closed 2011-12 harvest estimated at around 65 million tons.

-By Paul Kiernan, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-11-3544-7074; paul.kiernan@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2012 12:29 ET (16:29 GMT)