Brazil's main coffee state Minas Gerais has been receiving plentiful rain during the week which growers said was helpful to the developing crop, while showers were regular in the main sugarcane state Sao Paulo. Showers in Minas, which grows half of the coffee in the world's top grower, will turn heavier still on Saturday with around 40 millimeters (1.6 inches), then ease the next day, data from the Somar weather forecaster showed on Thursday.
Minas is adjacent to Rio de Janeiro state but was spared the deluge of rainfall there this week that triggered floods and mudslides that killed at least 375 people, one of the worst natural disasters Brazil has faced in decades.
Brazil is at the height of summer, the wettest time of year in the tropical country and the period when soils get their largest shot of moisture that must see them through the dry autumn and winter when fields can go months without showers. Agronomist Gabriel Araujo in the Minas town of Tres Pontas, one of the most densely planted coffee areas in Brazil, said the rains were beneficial so far but would eventually need to be interspersed with dry days.