Brazil’s Soybean Harvest at Slowest Pace Since 2021, Says AgRural

By Gabriel Araujo

SAO PAULO, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Brazil’s soybean harvest for the 2024/25 season had reached 1.7% of the planted area as of last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, the lowest level for this time of year since the 2020/21 cycle.

Work in the fields has been affected mainly by excessive rains in top grain-producing state Mato Grosso, where the harvesting pace so far is the slowest ever in the data series starting 2010/11, AgRural said in a statement.

Harvesting by Thursday was up from the 0.3% registered in the previous week but well below the 6% seen at the same time last year.

Adverse weather conditions have also impacted sowing of Brazil’s second corn crop, which represents about 75% of the national production each year and is planted after soybeans are harvested on the same fields.

Second corn planting in Brazil’s key center-south region had reached 0.3% of the expected area by Thursday, AgRural said, below the 4.9% seen a year earlier and the slowest pace since 2021, when farmers grappled with major planting delays.

“There is too much rain in Mato Grosso and too little in Parana,” the consultancy said, citing two major grain-producing states.

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Louise Heavens)