Lack of rainfall in key producing regions of Brazil has kept the 2019-20 soybean planting from gathering pace, with crop conditions showing some deterioration at this early stage in the planting season.

In the first half of September, "little or no rain" was observed in Brazil's central region, which led some states to delay soybean planting, Brazil's agricultural statistics agency (Conab) said today. The agency's comment comes as other states report slow progress in the seasonal planting. Earlier this week, the Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea) said that oilseed sowing in the state had been proceeding slowly. The central-western state is the top-grower of soybean in Brazil. Today, Parana state, which usually is the second-largest producer of the commodity, also highlighted delays in soybean sowing. So far, only 3pc of the expected area in the southern state has been planted, down from 18pc a year ago, when favorable weather conditions contributed to faster planting, said the state's Department of Rural Economics (DERAL-PR). Parana is expected to sow 5.5mn hectares (13.585mn acres) of soybean in the current 2019-20 season, up by 1pc from a year earlier, according to the latest DERAL-PR estimate, also released today. DERAL-PR specialist Carlos Hugo Godinho said he did not expect the delays in planting to affect the acreage forecast. DERAL-PR said that 60pc of the oilseed already planted can be considered "good", with the other 40pc classified as "average". In the same period a year ago, all the plantings were rated as "good". Despite the current situation, Parana expects a jump of 23pc in soybean output in 2019-20 versus last year, to 19.8mn metric tonnes (t). The expected gain is because a severe drought between December-January - a critical time for crop development - heavily affected production in the prior cycle. Market participants say it is still early to forecast any potential loss in yields since soybean planting in Brazil usually takes place through December, so there is still time for the rains to make up for the current dry spell. In a preliminary estimate, Conab said Brazil is expected to plant 1.7pc more soybean this year than the nearly 36mn ha planted in 2018-19. The first official forecast is expected to be released on 10 October. Source - https://www.argusmedia.com