|
Brazil is in the midst of its dry period, which
starts in May and runs into September and coincides with the
peak harvest periods for sugar cane and coffee in the region.
The moisture will help Brazil's coffee trees recover from the
stress wrought by a drought earlier this year, but it will hurt
the quality of the coffee that is now being harvested. Rain
during coffee harvest will infuse a bitter taste to beans and
lower their quality and price.
Roughly two thirds of the coffee crop has been harvested under
excellent conditions but the tail end of harvest is still
hanging on trees and is susceptible to the rain.
The 5 to 15 millimeters a day that local meteorologist Somar
forecasts would more than surpass the monthly averages for Sao
Paulo and Minas Gerais, the main sugar and coffee states. The
region normally averages 20 millimeters for the entire month of
July.
Sugar and ethanol mills stop harvesting altogether until rains
pass, as fields get too muddy for heavy harvesters to enter them
and the quality of the cane declines. The moisture will be a
relief for cane developing for harvest next year, however.
"It begins on Thursday and runs through Monday. It will paralyze
the cane and coffee harvests and even the winter corn harvest in
the center-west," said Somar's Marcio Costodio.
In addition to stalling the harvest, the rains are likely to
slow loading of bulk commodities at the southeastern ports of
Santos and Paranagua, from which much of the country's sugar,
grains and coffee sets sail for world markets.
(Reporting by Roberto Samora; Writing by Reese Ewing; Editing by
Peter Galloway)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
