Brazilian soybean trade has been boosted by favorable forex conditions this week, industry specialists said Tuesday.

The May soybean futures contract on the Chicago Board of Trade settled four cents higher at $8.48 a bushel on Tuesday. This compared to $8.44 at the end of trading on Monday.

"On Tuesday three factors have aligned in the right direction - good currency, good premiums, and the CBOT also is helping," said a chief trader at a major U.S. soy exporter.

One U.S. dollar was 2.41 Brazilian reals on Tuesday, which is far above lows of BRL1.55 last August and levels of around BRL2.30 in late February.

A said that this week the favorable forex conditions have meant that Brazilian farmers get more local currency for their beans, and this has helped to offset prices generally decreasing on CBOT.

"All of the major players such as Bunge (BG), Cargill, ADM (ADM) have been buying soy this week, and I expect between 300,000 (metric) tons and 350,000 tons to be bought on Tuesday," the trader said.

A broker at a Sao Paulo-based brokerage said soy buyers were asking Tuesday for 42 cents over the May contract on CBOT, with sellers wanting between 42 cents and 43.5 cents over the same contract.

The broker said Brazilian farmers have already sold around 34% of their new 2008-09 beans compared to a yearly average of more than 45%.

"The global economic crisis and tight credit is still outweighing soybean fundamentals," he said.

Brazilian consultancy Celeres said farmers in Mato Grosso, the No. 1 soy producer, had sold 52% of their soybeans as of Friday compared to 50% on Feb. 20. Farmers in Parana, the No. 2 soy producer, had sold 17% of their beans by Friday, steady with the week before.

Steve Cachia, an analyst at local Brazil-based agricultural consultancy Cerealpar, said that, overall, February's physical soybean trade was slower than in January, which had seen higher prices in the Brazilian market and better forex conditions. Since the January bright spot, trade has slowed and farmers have been reluctant to sell.

"If they (farmers) need cash, they tend to sell their corn," he said.

Farmers don't see corn prices as likely to rise due to high stocks, while they still hope that some news such as unfavorable weather will help to push up soy prices, he said.

Cachia said on Tuesday that soybean prices were at BRL47.70 per 60-kilogram bag, which was above last week's range of range of BRL46 to BRL47.50 per bag.

Cachia said around 22% of Brazil's 2008-09 soybeans have already been harvested. Cachia puts the new crop at 57 million tons.

Brazil is the No. 2 soy producer behind the U.S.

-By Tony Danby; Dow Jones Newswires; 55-11-2847-4523; Anthony.Danby@dowjones.com