Rain should continue over Brazil's center-west soyabean belt this week, as the region gears up to begin harvesting on a wider scale, meteorologist Somar predicted Monday.
So far only a trace amount of the crop has been ready to harvest in the center-west, so wet weather has not greatly affected to output potential of the main soya region. "The excess rain and moisture could hurt the soya in Mato Grosso and Goias, by increasing the risk of disease," Somar said in a daily soya weather bulletin.
Brazil has been grappling with Asian soya rust fungus over the past several years. It loses around 4.5 million tonnes of its soya crop to the disease annually.
No 1 soya producer Mato Grosso state and No 4 Goias are expected to see rain the next five days with moisture intensifying in Mato Grosso the end of this week, Somar said.
The southern soya producing region, including No 2 soya state Parana and No 3 Rio Grande do Sul have been drying out over the past few days and should remain clear until later this week when showers are forecast to return to the region.
In its 10-day forecast, Somar said rains would continue in the center-west and showers should return to the southern and north-eastern farms. Most of Brazil's crop is still maturing and will require further rainfall to form pods and beans in the coming weeks.
Producers have started harvesting early soyabean varieties in Lucas do Rio Verde in the center-north of Mato Grosso. Early soya forms 40 percent of the district's 600,000 tonnes crop. Brazilian soyabean harvesting normally peaks in late March or early April.
Wet weather encouraged a jump in Asian soyabean rust cases to nearly 400, government crop researcher Embrapa said recently. It compares with around 100 registered cases at end-December and 200 at the same time in 2005. The government forecast on January 11 put the new soya crop at 54.9 million tonnes, against 53.4 million last year.