SAO PAULO: Brazil’s soybean planting for the 2024/25 season had reached 18% of the total expected area as of last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, up from 8% the week before but still below last year’s 30%.

Rainfall helped work in the fields advance in several states last week, AgRural said in a statement, but the overall pace remains the slowest for the period since 2020/21 as planting in top grain-producing state of Mato Grosso remains slow.

“With the gradual improvement in rainfall in the Center-West, Southeast and North-Northeast regions, the expectation is for planting to gain pace in the second half of October,” the consultancy added.

AgRural also noted that farmers in Brazil’s key center-south region had planted 48% of the expected area for the 2024/25 first corn crop as of last Thursday, up 7 percentage points from the previous week and above the previous season’s 46%.

Brazil plants corn all year round and the first crop usually represents about 20% of national output, while the second crop - which is planted later, after soybeans are harvested on the same fields - accounts for some 75%.