Brazil’s Mato Grosso Soy Output May Be Hurt by Rain

Soybean output in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the country’s biggest-producing region, may be hurt by excess rains this year as growers struggle to harvest crops, according to AgRural, an agricultural research firm.

Farmers are “concerned” that rains during the harvest this month and next may lead to rotten and lower-quality beans, Rodrigo Nunes, soybean analyst for the Curitiba-based firm, said today in a telephone interview from Cuiaba, Mato Grosso.

Rains in Mato Grosso, which accounts for 27 percent of Brazil’s total soybean output, may increase in the first half of February as cold fronts in the Southeast and dampness in the Amazon cause concentrated rains in the Centerwest, said Paulo Etchichury, partner at weather forecaster Somar Meteorologia.

“Growers in Mato Grosso should be cautious as they don’t have ideal standards for harvesting their crops,” Etchichury said today in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo. “Rains are heavier this year and will need closer attention.”

Still, the region may harvest 20 million tons this year, compared with 18.8 million a year earlier, according to Nunes.

Growers in Mato Grosso harvested 2 percent of the crop as of Jan. 21, down from 8 percent in the same period a year earlier. Brazil may harvest 69.7 million metric tons of soybeans this year, up from 68.7 million tons last year, he said.

Soybean futures for March delivery fell 30 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $13.745 a bushel in Chicago. The oilseed is up 46 percent in the past year.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-25/brazil-s-mato-grosso-soy-growers-fear-rain-damage-update1-.html)