09/09/04 SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--Asian Soy rust is present in 80% ofBrazilian soybean-producing areas and could prompt losses of more thanfive million metric tons in the 2004-05 harvest, specialists fromBrazil's Agricultural Confederation CNA said Thursday.Soy rust is likely to prompt losses equivalent to or higher than2003-04 losses, which reached 4.5 million tons of soy, equivalent to 9%of the 49.8 million-ton harvest, according to Alecio Marostica, anexecutive from CNA.CNA estimates that soy rust cost Brazilian producers $2.2 billion inthe 2003-04 harvest.Brazil's 2004-05 soy harvest could reach 66 million tons, dependingon climatic condition, Marostica added.The CNA expects the soy-rust epidemic to be worse in Mato Grosso,Brazil's largest soy-producing state.Climatic conditions were responsible for the increased disseminationof soy rust in Brazil's center-west, which received above-averagerainfall this year, helping to propagate soy rust, according togovernment soy researcher Jose Tadashi Yorinori.Producers have asked the government to speed up approval of newagrochemicals that can be used to combat soy rust. According to CNAestimates, about five new fungicides are waiting approval by governmentagencies.The government estimates that producers will need 26 million litersof agrochemicals, up from 16 million liters in the 2003-04 harvestseason.Soy rust prompted a decline in productivity in Brazil to 2.4 tons perhectare in 2003-04 from 2.8 tons per hectare in 2002-03.Soy rust was first detected in Brazil in 2001. It could spread intothe U.S. in the next two to three years, according to Cristiano Simon,president of Brazil's National Association of Agricultural Protection.