SÃO PAULO (Reuters) – Farmers in Mato Grosso have already harvested 60% of the soybean area in the 2022/23 season, an increase of 15.93 percentage points in a week that allowed the largest producer state to surpass the historical average of 57.83% for the period, showed data from the Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea) this Friday.
After delays, jobs reached the average of recent years only as of last week.
“This week the harvest really went well, since last week the rhythm had already accelerated a little compared to previous weeks. The rain had started to give a break… but the pace has been flowing well”, said the superintendent of IMEA, Cleiton Gauer, to Reuters.
Despite the advance, the harvest follows behind that registered in the same period of the previous year, with 67.75%.
However, the area to be harvested has grown over the years, which must also be taken into account. In 2022/23, it increased by around 3% compared to the last harvest, to 11.8 million hectares.
Production is estimated by IMEA at a record 42.8 million tons of soybeans, an annual increase of almost 5%, with a favorable climate.
CORN DELAY
In corn, planting advanced to 50.28% of the projected area, still behind 2022 (68.40%) and the historical average (63.37%), after a slower start in the soybean harvest, which precedes planting of the cereal in the second harvest.
“For corn it has evolved, but we are well behind the average of the last five years, we were already projecting this reduction in sowing within the ideal window, but we continue to monitor it to see how it will consolidate in the month of February”, said Gauer.
In general, the earlier corn is planted, the less susceptible to bad weather the second crop is, since the weather tends to be less rainy in the Midwest closer to winter.
“What brings us a little more relief is that the pace of corn planting is also strong week after week, which is important for us to be able to advance in sowing even in the month of February in the State. We continue to monitor it, it has evolved better, but it brings a bit of alert because a significant slice of corn will be outside the ideal window in the State”, said the specialist from IMEA.
The area planted with cereal in the state grew 3.78% compared to last season, to 7.4 million hectares, according to IMEA. The projection is for a record harvest of 46.4 million tons of cereal (+5.9%).
Cotton planting in the State reached 96.17% of the projected area, close to 98.5% of the historical average for the period.
(Reporting by Nayara Figueiredo and Roberto Samora)