Brazil: Drought and price swings slowed the sale of Brazil's coffee that will be harvested in coming months, coffee specialist Gil Barabach for Safras e Mercado analysts said on Monday. Barabach estimated that 18 percent of the 47 million to 48 million bag coffee crop has already been sold by producers, even though harvesting will not pick up speed until June. On average, producers have sold 20 percent of the coming crop by the end of April, he said. "Prices were still pretty bad in December and early January, so producers weren't that interested in selling then. After prices rose from the drought, producers took the opportunity to sell their remaining old crop stocks rather than make forward sales," Barabach said. Reports that Brazil will not auction off 300,000 bags of stockpiled carry-over will fuel speculation that the damage to Brazil’s output will not be as bad as many predict.