A cold front is expected to hit Brazil's agricultural belt this week, bringing rain to end a dry spell that has damaged the second of two annual corn crops, a meteorologist said on Monday. "With the advance of this meteorological system to Brazil's interior, this week rain is expected in almost all regions of the country," Marco Antonio dos Santos of Somar Meteorologia said in a phone interview.
Rains are expected in the southern states of Rio Grande do Sul and Parana on Monday and by Tuesday should reach Sao Paulo and top grains producing state Mato Grosso, he said. The projected record second corn crop Brazil was counting on to end a shortage that had led it to import the grain from neighboring Argentina and Paraguay is now uncertain.
Consultancy AgRural estimated in early April a harvest of 54.3 million tonnes, or nearly two-thirds of the total 2015/16 crop. But AgRural likely will cut its forecast in May, aanalyst Daniele Siqueira said "Part of the crop was already lost, especially in Goias, but it is hard to quantify the losses," she said. Dry weather is again expected to settle into the center-south after this week, with only two bursts of rainfall expected in May. Brazil last week scrapped import taxes on corn from countries outside the Mercosur trade bloc, its latest effort to curb record domestic prices and boost supplies of feedstock. The grains market also is abuzz with speculation Brazil bought its first major cargo of US corn in two decades.