A new cold front will bring scattered showers to coffee farms in northern Parana, Sao Paulo state and south Minas later this week, private meteorologists Somar said on Monday. Other areas will be cloudy but will have little rain. In its 10-day outlook, Somar said that clearer weather will return to coffee areas May 12-16 and aid early harvesting.
Forested coffee areas had above average rainfall in April, but the important south Minas and Minas Cerrado regions had about 30 percent and 60 percent less rain than usual. All coffee areas, except for Parana, received below average rainfall in March. December and January were extremely wet.
Crop conditions have generally been very favourable. On April 20, the government's crop supply agency, Conab, forecast the 2007/08 (July/June) crop at 32.1 million 60-kg bags - the top end of its 31.1 million to 32.3 million bags preliminary range in December, but sharply lower than the 42.5 million bags of 2006/07. 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.