Brazil\’s Coffee Areas Free of Frost Risk in July, Forecaster Somar Says

Coffee crops in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer and exporter of the bean, aren’t expected to face frost in July, a weather forecaster said.

“There is just one polar mass coming to Brazil this month, and it won’t make it to coffee producing areas,” Marco Antonio dos Santos, an agrimeteorologist with Sao Paulo-based forecaster Somar Meteorologia, said today in a telephone interview.

Frost possibilities for August can’t be determined yet because of the influence of the La Nina weather pattern, he said. La Nina, caused by cooling temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, may
make polar masses “more intense,” he said.

Brazil may harvest 47 million coffee bags this year, up 19 percent from last year, the government’s crop forecasting agency, known as Conab, said May 6. Coffee harvest in Brazil runs from April to September.