Soybean harvest surges to 27% in Parana

Farmers in Brazil’s number two producing state of Parana have harvested 27% of estimated soybean planting, up from just 9% in the previous week, according to figures released late Monday by the state’s agricultural research body.

Parana, which is home to the port of Paranagua, generally produces around 18-20% of Brazilian soybean supply, but this year’s harvest has been slow to get off the ground due to delay in planting beans.

Coupled with a speedy harvest in the number one producing state of Mato Grosso, the rapid acceleration of the harvest came during a spate of dry weather and has caused logistics problems for many traders, sources said Monday, with truck freight rates jumping and storage hard to come by.

The state also said its second corn crop was 42% planted, up from 16%, and the first crop was 10% harvested.

Parana is expected to produce just over 19 million mt of soybean and 15 million mt of corn.