Brazil farmers harvest 25% of soybean-planted area

Brazilian farmers have harvested 25% of the soybean area planted for 2022/23 through last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, as work in the fields advances quickly in top grain producing state Mato Grosso.

Harvesting was up eight percentage points from the previous week, said AgRural, while at the same time last year 33% of the Brazilian soy fields had been reaped.

The consultancy last week cut its forecast for Brazil’s soybean output this season to 150.9 million tonnes from 152.9 million tonnes, citing a severe drought in the country’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Even so, that would represent a record high for soybean production in the South American agricultural powerhouse.

In its latest weekly update on Monday, AgRural highlighted rapid progress in Mato Grosso but said constant rains in the states of Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul, where harvesting was “very sluggish”, may lead to quality issues.

AgRural also said Brazil’s second corn planting, which represents about 75% of the country’s overall corn output in a given year and is cultivated in the same areas as soybeans, was below year-ago levels.

According to the consultancy, 40% of the expected second corn area had been planted in the center-south region as of Thursday, up from 24% a week earlier but below the 53% of a year ago.

Weekly figures were boosted by Mato Grosso and the neighbouring state of Goias, AgRural said in a statement, while in “western Parana, where the delay is very significant, there is concern about the planting window, which is set to close on Feb. 28”.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; editing by John Stonestreet and Barbara Lewis)