A cold front brought some rain to forested coffee areas over the weekend, but this coming week will be clear and assist early harvesting, private meteorologists Somar said Monday. The inland forested coffee area of eastern Minas got 30 millimeters (1.1 inches) of rain on Saturday, but the wettest weather was along the non-coffee coastal strip.
"From Tuesday, the weather will clear in all producing regions and remain that way throughout the week," Somar said in a daily report. In its 10-day outlook, Somar said coffee areas would be dry between May 5 and 9, apart from some light rain in south-eastern Brazil.
Forested coffee areas have had above average rainfall in April, but the important south Minas and the Minas Cerrado received less rain than usual. All coffee areas, except for Parana, received below-average rainfall in March. Parana got 173 millimeters, or 28 percent more rain than usual for the month.
December and January were extremely wet. Trade views are around 35 million bags for 2007/08 but the government's National Statistics Office (IBGE) recently put the new crop at 37.5 million bags.