POTATO / CEPEA: Rains in potato harvest intensifies
Piracicaba, 20 – In the January partial (04 to 15), the washed agate potato is quoted at R $ 120.46 (weighted by classification), on the average of the country’s washers, 5.24% below December / 20. But, despite the fall, prices remain at very attractive levels for producers – comparing them to production costs, which averaged R $ 57.73 / sc in December, are 3.38% higher than that month.
The drop in values, compared to last month, is due to the intensification of the 2020/21 water rains in Água Doce (SC), Sul de Minas and Guarapuava (PR). The season has reached its peak of harvest this month, and is expected to continue throughout February.
In the South of Minas region, as well as in the same period last year, a wide range of prices is observed in the harvest , due to quality problems (skin, caliber, coloring and shelf life ), a typical situation in the summer, due to the hot and rainy weather – which ends up compromising commercialization. The expectation for the entire harvest is that the average values remain above production costs .