Brazilian soyabean producers have been holding onto their remaining crop in the face of volatile international prices in the past weeks, soya analysts said on Monday. Private analysts Celeres said on Monday 74 percent of the 2004/05 harvest had been sold by July 1, unchanged from last week.
Celeres said sales this season were ahead of the 71 percent sold by this time last year but producers and buyers remain cautious as futures prices in Chicago have been fluctuating widely in recent weeks.
Celeres said about 13.5 million tonnes of the crop remained in producers' hands, mostly in the southern soya states.
Independent analysts Safaris e Merced said Brazilian producers had committed to selling 68 percent of the new crop, according to its latest research, up only slightly from the previous week.
Safras said 72 percent of last year's crop had been sold by this week.
Safras' forecast the current crop at 50.8 million tonnes. Brazil's meal and oil industry said it had stocks of about 13.5 million tonnes of stocks in May.
For the industry to meet its crushing goals for the year it would have to acquire an additional 4 million tonnes of beans, Celeres said, leaving about 9 million tonnes of beans for export.
The Trade Ministry said that soyabean shipments fell 19 percent to 3.0 million tonnes in June, from 3.7 million tonnes a year ago.