Brazil soy harvest hits 17%, Parana state progress slow

Brazil’s soybean harvest is 17% in the bins, according to a survey by AgRural, down on 19% last year and down versus the five-year average of 26%.

In a weekly update, the consultants said the harvest has risen seven percentage points over the week, with farmers in the largest producing state of Mato Grosso the main driver, with the harvest there reaching 45% complete from 30% a week earlier. 

AgRural acknowledged there was a rising number of reports of soybeans with excess humidity in the state, which is expected to produce almost 30% of the nation’s soybeans, but said “for the time being, they do not threaten the state's supersafra.”

However, in the state of Parana, which is expected to account for about 18% of the nation’s beans, the harvest is painfully slow, with just 5% complete, down on 20% last year and a five-year average of 23%.

“In addition to the delay in planting and the lengthening of the crop cycle, rains recorded this week put a brake on the harvesters' advance (in Parana),” the report said.

Heavy rain on key planting dates last year has delayed Brazil’s harvest by a few weeks, according to analysts, a dynamic that will likely see February international shipments of beans fall short on last year’s export figure. 

Indeed, brokers said last week that farmers were concentrating on getting the harvest in, rather than selling beans, despite a surge in prices that was fuelled by fears of a poor Argentinian crop. 

In Mato Grosso do Sul and Goias,  Brazil’s number four and number five producing states, the harvest was 16% and 18% complete, respectively, although that should increase rapidly over the next two weeks, weather permitting.  

In the rest of the country, the harvest reached 5% in Santa Catarina, 12% in São Paulo, 7% in Minas Gerais, 2% in Bahia, 3% in Tocantins, 4% in Pará and 35% in Rondônia.

In the number three producing state - Rio Grande do Sul, where the harvest has not yet begun - rains and falling temperatures this week were needed to help grain filling.

In terms of corn, 26% of the total area estimated for the Center-South of Brazil was sown, compared to 31% in the five-year average and 36% last year.