Brazil's coffee areas narrowly escaped frost early yesterday morning as cloud cover and light winds kept the worst effects of an immense cold-air mass away from vulnerable trees, co-operatives reported.
Strong winds were reported at Mandaguari outside the key coffee town of Maringa in northern Parana and also at Nova Londrina in the state's far north-west corner.
Farmers in Santo Antonio da Platina in Parana's northeast said good cloud cover had prevented any damage.
Due to its flattish terrain, Parana is more vulnerable to clear skies and calm winds while in other more rugged Brazilian coffee states such as Minas Gerais the fear is that windchill will drag low temperatures even lower.
Reports of cold winter weather in Brazil, the world's largest grower and exporter of coffee, normally send international prices soaring.
Even though Parana only turns out some 8 per cent of the country's total coffee crop, world markets are extremely quick to react to any hint of frost. The last significant cold weather event to affect Brazil's coffee belt was in 1994.
