March 4, 2009

Brazil's soy crop should produce around 57.1 million tonnes in the 2008/09 season, down 4.4 percent from last year, analysts said on Monday (Mar 2).

Celeres data in a weekly soy bulletin showed around 35 percent of the crop had been sold forward by last Friday (Feb 27), far less than that was committed for delivery at this time a year ago.

The centre-western region, which includes the country's biggest soy state Mato Grosso, was well ahead of the national average with 51 percent of the crop sold already, but sales were much higher by this time last year at 72 percent.

The south, which contains the second and third biggest soy states, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul, was the most sluggish region in respect to sales, with only 14 percent of the crop sold compared with 36 percent last year.

Some farmers are hoping that prices could rise higher after a drought in southern Brazil and Argentina, have held off from making sales in the hope of clinching a better deal later.

However, analysts said prices were down around 3 percent from last week as harvesting advanced, helped by easing rains.

In total 18 percent of the expected crop had been gathered, up from 12 percent last week and 16 percent a year ago.