Of the total expected production of 75.6 million tonnes, Brazil's 2011/12 soy crop sales rose to 47%, up from 46% a week earlier, analysts Celeres said on Monday (Jan 23).

Planting of the new crop is finished across the main centre-west and southern soy belts, where rains started strong in October but fell below average in the southernmost producer state of Rio Grande do Sul and Parana in November and December.

The south is due to get some rain this week and the centre-west will continue to get daily showers that will quench the parched soy and corn crops across the grain belt. But the recent moisture will not reverse all the losses to yields caused by the dry weather in earlier weeks.

13% of the crop has entered its final stages of maturation and is only a week or two from being ready to harvest, Celeres said. Another 38% of the grain belt is in the critical pod-filling stage when regular moisture is vital for a successful harvest. The bulk of the crop, 79%, is in the flowering stage, Celeres said in a weekly bulletin on the grain belt's development.

Brazil is the world's second biggest soy producer after the US and is expected to surpass it to become the largest exporter of the oilseed this year for the first time since 2005/06.