As of last Friday, 99.5% of this year's crop--estimated by Celeres at 64.95 million metric tons--had been harvested, with only a few fields in southern Brazil remaining.
Celeres said 83% of the 2011-12 soybean crop had already been marked for sale, up from 80% on May 4 and compared with Brazil's five-year average of 63% for this time of year.
Soybean futures in the U.S. hit a nearly four-year high at the end of April amid expectations for tight world supplies, after a drought in recent months drastically reduced crop potential in major South American exporters Brazil and Argentina.
Also contributing to Brazilian farmers' incentive to sell has been a steady depreciation in the local currency's value against the dollar. The Brazilian real opened this week in sharp decline, recently trading at BRL1.9881 to the dollar, according to Tullett Prebon via FactSet, its weakest level since mid-2009.
Celeres said that the currency's slide has allowed local soybean prices to remain stable, even as U.S. futures have receded in the past couple of weeks amid mounting worries about the European crisis.
High prices have also encouraged very advanced sales of Brazil's next soybean crop, which won't be harvested until early 2013. Celeres said as much as a quarter of 2012-13 production has been contracted.
Brazil is the world's No. 2 soybean grower, after the U.S. The South American country's main customer for oilseed is China, which purchased 75% of Brazilian soybean exports during April, Celeres noted, citing official statistics.
