Rain may hinder the harvest of coffee crops in Brazil

Harvest in Brazil, the world's largest producer of coffee and sugar cane, is likely to slow as rain is expected to fall for four to five days in southeastern Brazil from Thursday, forecasters said on Thursday.

Brazil is currently in a dry season, consistent with the peak harvest of sugar cane and coffee crops in the region. The dry season in Brazil usually begins in May and lasts until September.

Rain has helped Brazilian coffee trees recover from a drought earlier this year, but damaged the quality of coffee beans that are about to be harvested. Rainfall during the harvest will cause the coffee beans to taste bitter and reduce the quality and price.

About 2/3 of the coffee crops have been harvested under excellent conditions, but a few are still on the trees and are vulnerable to rainfall.

The local meteorological agency Somar predicts that 5-15 millimeters of daily rainfall in the states of S ã o Paulo and Minas Gerais will make monthly levels well above average. The rainfall in this area is usually 20 mm for the whole month of July. These two areas are the main producers of sugar and coffee.

Sugar and ethanol plants stopped harvesting before the rain stopped completely because the fields were too muddy for large harvesting equipment to enter and the quality of sugar cane declined. However, precipitation will help the growth of sugarcane crops harvested next year.

"the rain starts on Thursday and continues until next Monday. Sugar cane and coffee harvests will be completely paralyzed, and even winter corn harvests in the Midwest will be affected, "said MarcioCostodio of Somar.

In addition to hampering the harvest, rain could slow commodity shipments in the southeastern ports of Santos and Paranagua. Brazilian sugar, grain and coffee are mostly shipped to all parts of the world through these two ports.