Brazil coffee growers report good flowering, but rains weigh on crop development

By Roberto Samora SAO PAULO, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Coffee fields in Brazil's Minas Gerais, the world's largest arabica-producing region, have experienced robust flowering, but experts said fruit development will depend on rainfall, which remains scarce in some parts of the coffee belt. The flowering stage is key for the 2026 crop in top coffee grower Brazil, where Minas Gerais state accounts for roughly 70% of arabica production, according to Brazilian food supply agency Conab. A large Brazilian harvest next year is seen by analysts as crucial to replenishing global inventories depleted by steady demand and below-potential output in Brazil and other producing countries over the past few years. In Minas Gerais' Cerrado Mineiro region, where over half the cultivated area lacks irrigation and tem