Brazil's key coffee zones were much drier than usual in February, helping stop bacterial halo blight disease in its tracks but causing concern that developing coffee beans may not have enough water to swell out to an optimal size. The larger arabica coffee crop in the world's top grower will begin to be picked from May, and several weeks earlier in robusta regions. It is expected to turn out a large crop, despite weather problems that blighted it early on.
Agronomist Roberto Maegawa, of the Cocapec co-operative in the northern Sao Paulo coffee town of Franca, said the drier weather stubbed out a worrying bout of halo blight that gained a foothold during an unusually wet January. "Now that there is not the cold or wind, things are better. We're not having this problem at all now," he said.
Halo blight dries out branches and can kill off the coffee fruit. It hit some wind-exposed farms hard but overall, was not expected to turn out a major threat to the crop. Data from weather forecaster Somar showed top coffee state Minas Gerais received anywhere from 60 to 95 percent less rain than average in February. Unusually heavy rains in January provided a buffer of soil moisture tiding trees over, however. But with the dryness expected to continue, with only light, patchy rains forecast for the weekend followed by further dryness, producers are concerned that the crop in the Minas coffee belt may not swell out to its full size.
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