SAO PAULO: Brazil's crop supply agency Conab forecast the country's 2016 coffee output at 49.64 million bags on Wednesday, down slightly from its May forecast, after losses from drought in robusta growing regions eclipsed gains in arabica areas.
Despite better than expected gains in leading arabica growing regions in Minas Gerais, the state which produces 50 percent of Brazil's coffee, bigger losses in robusta growing areas prompted the agency to trim its estimate.
The forecast - the agency's third this year - saw Brazil's arabica output growing 29 percent to 41.3 million bags from last season and robusta output dropping 25 percent to 8.4 million bags, as the country's harvest winds down for the season.
Conab said the growing regions of South Minas and Cerrado would show a 42 percent and 63 percent jump in arabica output this year after the Minas area recovered from the prior two seasons when drought slashed yields.
The Conab forecast saw South Minas producing 15.3 million 60-kg bags, up from 10.8 million last season, with the Cerrado region producing 6.9 million bags compared with 4.2 million in the last crop.
Meanwhile, drought in the second largest coffee producing state of Espirito Santo is seen slashing the robusta harvest by 31 percent to 5.4 million bags.
Conab's latest forecast still lags market estimates of the crop by more than 10 percent. A Reuters poll of forecasts from 11 traders, exporters and analysts estimated the current crop at 54.9 million bags.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.