Coffee areas in world top grower Brazil will stay warm and dry over the next week, with no new waves of cold expected, leaving little chance of crop-damaging frost, forecaster Somar predicted Monday. Minimum temperatures will be in the double digits in all areas Somar monitors except in the cooler, mountainous part of the coffee belt in southern Minas Gerais, Pocos de Caldas, where temperatures may near freezing on two nights this week.
Somar said there was no chance of frost in the area nonetheless. Pocos is one of the coldest coffee areas and has passed through several nights of near-freezing temperatures but escaped significant frost. Frost is a rare occurrence in Brazil's coffee areas but reached Parana's coffee state a fortnight ago and made a more timid appearance further north-east in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais coffee areas.
Co-operatives in Parana said it was the worst freeze since the last important frost in 2000 and some expected it could shave around 15 percent of next year's productivity. Other states reported less significant damage to trees. Not a drop of rain was forecast for any area Somar monitors in the coming week, which will help farmers advance in gathering the 2011/12 off-year crop. They say quality has been helped this year by the unusually even ripening of the fruit. Somar said there was no sign of new masses of polar air approaching the coffee belt in its extended forecast.
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