Sales of Brazilian Soybeans Continue to Advance

By CnAgri Print

Sales of Brazil's 2012/2013 soybean crop advanced one percentage point to 49 percent in the past week as planting picked up on an improving rain outlook, local analyst Celeres said on Monday. According to Reuters, farmers in Brazil earlier this year sought to lock in high prices with forward sales after the worst drought in 56 years in the United States. Less of the new crop - 36 percent - was sold at the same time a year earlier.

The pace of sales in Brazil, which is on track to replace the United States as the world's top producer of the oil seed this season, have slowed since prices in Chicago retreated from all-time highs in September.

January soybean futures in the U.S. fell nearly 2 percent on Monday, to their lowest in more than four months, dragged down by a forecast of higher-than-expected production in the United States and hopes of bumper supplies from Brazil and neighboring Argentina.

After a dry October, rains in top producing Mato Grosso state should unleash a flurry of planting and assure good germination of already seeded fields, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, farmers have planted 58 percent of projected area, according to a poll by Celeres, up from 44 percent a week earlier and in line with the pace of planting last year.

Brazil has sold 99 percent of the 65-million-tonne 2011/2012 crop that ended harvest in May, Minas Gerais-based Celeres said in a weekly report. Some states ran out of soy in August and were forced to import from neighboring countries.