Brazil's coffee harvest is making swift progress, thanks to sunny weather favoring field work and making it easier to dry harvested beans, weather forecaster Somar said in a coffee bulletin on Monday.
The world's top coffee producer is reaping what is expected to be its largest harvest in eight years, with estimates anywhere between the official 47.04 million 60-kg bags and around 55 million bags, with a minority eyeing more still.
"The dry, sunny weather throughout the month of June ... is favoring the harvesting and drying of beans and bringing about a rapid advance in the harvest," said Somar agrometeorologist Marco Antonio dos Santos.
Santos told Reuters the densely forested Zona da Mata area of the main coffee state Minas Gerais had already harvested as much as 73 percent of the crop, based on a survey of local cooperatives.
Night temperatures continue to bring a chill as is normal with the Southern Hemisphere having entered winter a week ago, but there has been no indication of frost risk so far.
Brazil's coffee production rises and falls from one year to the next in a biennial cycle. This year's harvest will be a higher output crop which will be welcome with private and government stocks at their lowest in years.
New York coffee futures, have soared by around a quarter in the last fortnight, closing at 168.05 cents per lb on Monday, having hovered around 135 cents per lb in the weeks prior to the rally driven by still-tight supplies and buying by funds.
Last year's rain-blighted harvest showed how critical dry weather is during the harvest period. Large quantities of produce were spoiled as rains fell during most of the harvest, making it difficult to dry the beans and stop them fermenting.
Source: Reuters
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