Brazil's 2005/06 (July/June) coffee crop forecast was revised up slightly to 32.46 million 60-kg bags from the 31.87 million bags estimated in December, the agriculture ministry said Friday. Coffee output totalled 38.6 million bags in 2004/05. In the second official forecast for the new crop, the ministry revised upward arabica bean output to 23.3 million bags from 22.5 million bags projected in December. But output would be 25 percent lower than the 31.1 million bags in 2004/05.
Robusta output was seen slightly lower than in December at 9.2 million bags compared with 9.37 million bags previously. But it would still be 21.7 percent higher than the 7.5 million bags from the present crop.
The government crop agency Conab, which conducted the survey, used satellite images and the global positioning system (GPS) in Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo states.
It will use these crop surveying methods in Sao Paulo state in its next production estimate in August.
For this survey, Conab interviewed 2,565 coffee producers in Brazil's seven main coffee growing states
Traders said the new crop estimate will have little market impact.
"The market was expecting about the same as the last estimate in December. It's slightly higher but still well below market expectations of between 34 and 38 million bags," said Carlos Santana of Santos-based exporter Esteve.
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