Recent rains in coffee-producing areas in Brazil have contributed to the reduction of water stress and should induce plantations to the “main” flowering of the cycle, but there are still concerns about the maturation of the beans that will be harvested next year, experts said.
Brazilian coffee plantations were affected by a severe drought in September, which made the sector withdraw its bets on a “super harvest” in 2018.
Since the weekend, however, rainfall has returned to crops. In the last seven days, for example, it rained 47.6 mm in the south and southeast of Minas Gerais and 16.9 mm in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, important producing regions in the country, according to the Agriculture Weather Dashboard, from the Eikon terminal from Thomson Reuters.
“As there have been records of rain in the coffee producing areas of Paraná, São Paulo and also Minas Gerais, the prospect is… that they will cause floral induction. It is very likely that this will be the main one (bloom)”, said the agrometeorologist at Rural Clima, Marco Antonio dos Santos.
The director of Pharos consultancy, Haroldo Bonfá, agrees that the current rainfall should induce plantations to the second flowering of the cycle.
“Arabica normally has three flowerings,” he said, considering that the spaces between one and the other are larger this year – the previous flowering had been at the end of August –, which can generate beans with different maturation stages at the time of harvest. , from June 2018.
“The big problem is that the grains will mature differently. In the same branch, the producer will find different grains, one greener, another medium and another better. The blooms are very spaced out”, highlighted Bonfá.
“At harvest time it will be complicated. Perhaps the producer will have to do a staggered harvest, in installments, because if he harvests everything at once, he will have problems with the quality of the coffee”, added the specialist from the Department of Rural Economy of the State of Paraná (Deral), Paulo Sérgio Franzini.
“These spaced flowerings are an unfavorable point for maturation, which is uneven. This is not common”, said Franzini, highlighting that the rainfall in recent days helps to stop the losses resulting from the drought, but is still insufficient to completely replace the water deficit.
“We needed a homogeneous rainfall of more than 80 mm.”
According to the Agriculture Weather Dashboard forecast, rains are expected to occur more irregularly and in less significant daily volumes in Minas Gerais and São Paulo, compared to the last few days.
Until October 18, the expectation is for an accumulation of around 28 mm in the region of Ribeirão Preto (SP) and Zona da Mata (MG).
In the south of Minas, there is an expectation of more rainfall, of almost 50 mm, in the accumulated result for the same period.
Source: Agrolink
