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Brazil Harvest Moves Ahead Of Normal

Brazilian farmers had harvested an estimated 22% of their soybean crop by Friday, vs. 21% a year earlier and a five-year average of 20%, private analysts Safras & Mercado said.

That's up from 15% harvested a week earlier. "Harvesting should speed up although the weather is still very unsettled," Safras soy analyst Odineia Santos told Reuters News Service.

Harvest has been affected by excess rain in the center-west and a lack of rain in southern soy states. Private meteorologists Somar on Friday forecast strong rain in drought-stressed Parana state, Brazil's No. 2 soybean producer. But the key center-west region is expected to remain dry for the next six days.

Despite heavy rains in Mato Grosso, Brazil's No. 1 soybean state, 37% of the crop had been harvested, vs. 36% a year earlier and a five-year average of 35%. Last week 30% of the crop had been cut. In Parana, harvesting was also ahead at 30%, against 26% last year. Harvest hasn't begun in the third largest soybean producing state, Rio Grande do Sul.

Editors note: Richard Brock, The Corn and Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.

To see more market perspectives, visit Brock's Web site at www.brockreport.com.