SAO PAULO: Brazil’s 2023/24 soybean planting had reached 91% of the expected area as of Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, up 6 percentage points from the previous week.

Sowing continues to lag behind last year’s levels, when 95% of the areas had been planted at the same time, AgRural said in a statement. The consultancy last week trimmed its forecast for this year’s crop to 159.1 million metric tons from 163.5 million tons due to excessive heat and lack of rains in major producing states like Mato Grosso.