Palm | Kelapa Sawit

SAO PAULO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Forward sales of soybeans in Brazil, the world's second largest producer, advanced one percentage point last week, local analyst Celeres said on Monday, as farmers awaited sufficient rainfall to plant what could be a record crop.

The restricted 90-day window in which producers cannot legally sow soy to prevent the spread of Asian rust fungus, ended on Sept. 15 in the biggest soy state, Mato Grosso.

Forward sales rose to 46 percent of expected output from 45 percent the previous week, Celeres said in a weekly report. Farmers have sought to lock in high prices since the U.S. drought spurred global supply fears. Much less of the new crop - 21 percent - had been sold a year earlier.

Producers have sold 98 percent of the 65-million-tonne 2011/2012 crop that ended harvest in May, unchanged from a week earlier and above the 89 percent sold by this time last year, Minas Gerais-based Celeres said.

Stocks were depleted after drought in Brazil's soy belt this year, but Celeres expects a record 78.1 million tonnes for the 2012/2013 crop from Brazil, due partly to forecasts of steadier and earlier rainfall.

Local media reported isolated rainfall in Mato Grosso on Monday, which could encourage farmers after a three-month dry stretch during the southern hemisphere's winter.

November soybean futures SX2 fell to $16.69 per bushel in Chicago on Monday, helped by rain forecasts in South America and anecdotal reports that the U.S. harvest would not be as bad as some had feared.

Local meteorologist Somar has cautioned that steady showers needed to allow plants to germinate may come later than initially thought, however.

That would not necessarily affect overall output but would result in a later harvest in a year in which Brazilian production is needed to make up for drought losses in the top-producing United States.