Rains over Brazil's south-eastern coffee belt will turn heavy in the coming days and persist into next week, boosting moisture levels for trees in need of abundant rain as coffee fruit swells out, private weather forecaster Somar said on Thursday. "(Winds) will bring this humidity to the south-east in the coming days. That way, there will be heavier rain over the coffee belt," Somar said in a coffee weather bulletin.

Over the next five days, the areas of top coffee state Minas Gerais, which Somar monitors, will receive between 130 and 140 millimeters of rain, or roughly half the rain usually received in all of November. Rains are forecast to persist beyond then, the bulletin also said. The robusta-growing state of Espirito Santo, which turns out a quarter of the coffee in the world's top producer, will be dry in the coming days, unlike states growing the more expensive arabica variety that accounts for three-quarters of Brazil's coffee. Brazil will begin harvesting its next coffee crop around May or June next year. Nonetheless, one exporter this week unusually said it expected production to rise from last year.

Copyright Reuters, 2012