Strong dollar puts pressure on bean crops and may jeopardize the season's exports

The bean domestic markets had been struggling with its high cost for a while. From the exporter's point of view, the situation tends to worsen as the dollar has been losing purchasing power against the Brazilian real and this means that the premiums are now narrowing down near to breakeven.

Two main exportable beans from Brazil may be affected this year, the white cowpea, largely produced in Mato Grosso and Mungo. Regarding cowpea, the value that makes the export viable is between R$ 2,500 ~ 2,830 per metric ton. Mungo, on the other hand, is priced at R$ 2,680/ton considering export parity . Yesterday (Jun15th) the producers of cowpea preferred holding stocks to sell. They expect a recovering dollar at the short term in order to guarantee an amount close to R$ 200 per bag, as it has been advised by a representative entity of pulses in Brazil.

Over the past week the market acquired commercial lots in Paraná, having prices fluctuating in a R$ 220 average for a mixture of dried corn and soy. In Bahia, the lots of better quality and deals between R$ 280 and R$ 290 were reported. Also a source of supply advised cowpea beans from Mato Grosso for R$ 190-200 levels to the domestic market.