January 9, 2007

 

Farmers in Brazil's Mato Grosso begin soy harvest for 2006/07

 

 

Farmers in three municipalities in Brazil's leading soy state of Mato Grosso have already started harvesting soy for the new 2006/07 season, though heavy showers this week could interrupt fieldwork in some areas, said the Mato Grosso soy producers association, or Aprosoja, and local producers on Monday.

 

The city of Nova Mutum--which started harvesting in the last week of December--was the first in the state to begin the 2006/07 season, while the cities of Lucas do Rio Verde and Sorriso have also begun harvesting, said an Aprosoja spokeswoman in a telephone interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

 

An estimated 5-10 percent of producers in Mato Grosso start the soy harvest in January, another 30 percent or so begin in February, and the rest start harvesting in March and April, said Aprosoja.

 

"It's becoming normal for us to harvest soy earlier, in order to plant more corn and cotton and have a winter crop that's bigger," said Alcindo Uggeri, the president of the rural soy producers union in Nova Mutum and the city's vice-mayor in a phone interview.

 

Nova Mutum--which has already harvested roughly 3 percent of its estimated 300,000 hectares of soy--expects to gather 20-25 percent of its crop by the end of January, he added.

 

Meanwhile, the city of Sorriso--which began its soy harvest last week--should collect 10-15 percent of its estimated 570,000 to 580,000 hectares of planted soy harvested by the end of this month, said Nadir Socolotti, the vice-president of Aprosoja.

 

However, heavy rains had already interrupted fieldwork in Sorriso on Monday, added the vice-president of the city's local soy producers union, Leonir Capitanio.

 

In Lucas do Rio Verde, meanwhile, about 2-3 percent of the city's soy crop of an estimated 220,000 hectares has also been collected to date, said Fernando Schreiner, an agronomist for local fertilizer and seed company Plantar.

 

By the end of January, about 40 percent of the city's soy crop will be gathered, and another 40 percent by the end of February, said Schreiner.

 

The harvest this year started earlier in Lucas do Rio Verde since local farmers planted soy 10-15 days earlier this season compared to the year-ago period, and cloudy weather also caused earlier soy flowering, he noted.

 

Local farmers generally say that they are cautiously optimistic that this season's crop will be an abundant one.

 

"The rains have been excellent," said Schreiner.

 

Brazil is the world's no. 2 soy producer and exporter, after the US.