SAO PAULO (September 22 2004): Sales of Brazil's new crop soyabeans arebehind schedule as producers continue to hold on to stocks in hopes ofbetter international prices, grain analysts Celeres said on Monday.

"We left our estimate unchanged from last week," soyabean specialistRodrigo Nervier at Celeres said.

"The market is practically parlayed."

Celeres reported that 8 percent of the new crop about to be planted in thecoming weeks had been pre-sold by producers, who typically sell parts oftheir expected crops for future delivery to cover immediate planting andday-to-day costs.

Last year by this week, producers had pre-sold 38 percent of the then newcrop. "I expect as the planting gets going more producers will beginselling," said Nervier. Celeres forecast the 2004/05 (October-September)soya crop at 64.2 million tonnes, up 26 percent from the 51 millionharvests in 2004.

Brazil plants most of its soyabean crop from October to December.

Harvest begins as January in the center-west and continues through May inRio Grande do Soul.

Nerger added that producers had sold 77 percent of the old crop on Friday,unchanged from the week before, compared with 87 percent by this time in2003.