Brazil's No 1 soya state has escaped drought denting prospects for the oilseed in southern states, but its harvest has been slowed by the opposite problem of excess rain that shows no sign of letting up. The center western state of Mato Grosso, which grows more than a quarter of the soya in the world's No 2 producer has already received the full average rainfall for January in the first 19 days of the month, data from forecaster Somar showed.
Soggy fields are difficult for harvesters to manoeuvre in and the machines struggle to strip out the grains from the plants when they are wet, delaying the flow of grains from what is usually the first state to start harvesting each year. "There are areas that are not managing to harvest and others that are," said an agronomist for a regional grains entity who asked to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak on its behalf.
"It hasn't caused damage yet. You can't say there have been any losses," he said. Somar's five-day forecast shows there will be rain almost every day in the next five in Mato Grosso while southern states would be mostly dry except for a millimetre or two of rain here and there.
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