Soy: Mato Grosso plantings rise with rains

Soybean planting in the central-western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso had the most significant weekly increase last week since the beginning of sowing in September, boosted by rains.

Planting reached 16.35pc of the 9.78 million ha expected for the season, a nearly 10 percentage-point rise from the prior week, according to the Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea). Despite the increase, the planting pace last week was still lower than one year earlier, when it had reached 27.28pc of the expected area, as dry weather in September slowed work.

Mato Grosso is Brazil´s top soybean producing state. It is expected to harvest 33mn tonnes (t) in the 2019-20 crop season.