At this time in 2020, coffee farmers in the world's largest producer had collected 23% of the crop. The 5-year average for this time of the year is also 23%.
Safras projects a crop of 56.5 million 60-kg bags in Brazil this year. The government has estimated a lower figure of 48.8 mln bags.
At this time in 2020 coffee farmers in the world's largest producer had collected 19% of the crop, below the 5-year average of 20%.
Safras coffee analyst Gil Barabach said on Thursday that many farmers decided to slightly postpone fieldwork, because most cherries were not ripe enough for harvesting.
Safras now expects the harvest of arabica beans to reach 34.7 million bags versus 35.2 million bags previously. Compared to last year's crop, the reduction on arabica production is 31%.
The consultancy adjusted slightly upwards its projection for robusta coffee production in Brazil by 100,000 bags to 21.8 million bags. The Brazilian robusta crop is seen growing 12% from last year.