Brazil kicks off early 2017-18 soybean harvest

Farmers in Brazil’s biggest soybean producing state of Mato Grosso began harvesting early maturing fields in the past days with reports of good yields.

Mato Grosso accounts for nearly a third of Brazil’s total soybean output, which reached a record 114 million mt in the past season. The state is also typically the first state to harvest.

“There are very few fields harvesting,” said Sergio Stefanelo, the agricultural engineer that manages 15,000 hectares in Novo do Parecis in western Mato Grosso.

He said that yields from the early harvesting fields were good at around 3 mt per hectare, but added that those numbers could fall if rains lingered into February and March.

Mato Grosso has struggled in recent years with soy rust fungus, especially with later maturing soybeans varieties.

The spread of rust picks up in the state later in the harvest period which runs through March typically, especially if the harvest receives greater than normal rainfall.

The soybean growers’ association in the state, Aprosoja, said very early harvesting has also started in the north-central farming town of Sinop as well as in the southeast segment of the state.

Struggle

Mato Grosso struggled with the late onset of spring rains, which forced most farmers to push more of their planting of the current crop later into the growing window.

This put the crop at greater risk of rust, which can wipe out a field if left unchecked.

Brazil’s official crop supply agency Conab is due to release its fourth monthly forecast of the 2017-18 soybean crop on Thursday.

In early December, it forecast a nearly 5% decline from last season’s harvest to 109 million mt. Last season’s crop had nearly perfect weather conditions.

The Mato Grosso State Farm Economy Institute (Imea) said in its latest report that growth in the state’s planted area was the slowest in five years because of the irregular rainfall in the early planting season.

The nearly 19% decline in the average spot price of soybeans in the state from December 2017 was also a factor in the slow expansion of planted area in Mato Grosso, where a 60-kg bag of soybeans averaged 55.55 reais ($17.14/bag at the current exchange rate) over 2017, Imea said.

The state is projected to harvest 30.6 million mt of soybeans this season, down from the record output of 31.6mn tons last season, Imea said.

Local analysts Safras e Mercado said overall sales of Brazil’s new crop remain subdued at 29.8%, down from the 34.4% this time last year and 38.4% on average for this period.