SAO PAULO – Rains have disrupted the soybean harvest in Brazil, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, with excessive humidity reducing the quality of beans produced in the world’s largest supplier of oilseeds.
Brazilian farmers have harvested about 16% of the cultivated area so far, AgRural said. This compares with 10% of the area planted in the previous week and 4% in the same time last year, when Brazil’s soybean planting was delayed and part of the crop was not ready at this juncture.
“Despite good weekly progress, work was slower than expected due to constant rains in Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and part of Goiás,” the AgRural statement read.
In Mato Grosso, the main producer, attempts were made to harvest between the rains, for fear that more rain could damage quality. However, part of the grains delivered to the silos had higher than normal humidity amid persistent rains, which slowed down the processing, sorting and transportation of the grains, AgRural said.
Brazil’s 2021/2022 summer corn crop reached 18% of the cultivated area in Central-South Brazil, compared to 14% in the same period last year, AgRural said.
At the same time, the planting of the second batch of corn from Brazil in 2022 which is carried out after the soybean harvest in the same field sreached 24% of the area in the Center-South, compared to 3% in the same period last year.
Brazil’s second crop of corn, also known as winter corn, typically accounts for 70% to 75% of total production in a year.
| NEWS | WORLD | LATEST |