Parana soy harvest to start in February

Soybean harvest in Brazil's southern state of Parana is expected to start in February, a 30-day delay in comparison to the last cycle, potentially affecting the local second-corn crop planting.

Parana has virtually completed the 2019-20 soybean sowing, having reached 99pc of the 5.5mn ha expected area so far, the local Department of Rural Economics (Deral-PR) said today.

Oilseed sowing this season had a slower pace than usual because of drought in September-October, resulting in the harvest being poised to kick off later than normal.

In contrast, the prior cycle's harvest started by the beginning of January, benefited by faster planting. On that occasion, harvest totaled 20pc of the area at the end of January and surpassed half of the acreage at the end of February.

This season's delay has stoked farmer concern as they will not be able to count on an ideal climatic window for second-corn crop sowing. The so-called safrinha is planted after soybean harvest, with 20 February as the end date for this activity in certain Parana regions. Farmers have been looking for a term extension.

Planting the grain out of this window means that plantations could be vulnerable to unfavorable weather conditions, such as lack of rainfall or freezing temperatures.

Deral-PR does not have forecasts for the safrinha. It sees soybean production reaching a near-record of 19.82mn metric tonnes this season, a 23pc increase against 2018-19, when the oilseed was affected by a severe drought during key-phases of development.

By José Roberto Gomes