January 29, 2015
Datagro says the sugarcane crop in Brazil's centre-south states is developing normally so far this year despite a lack of rain in much of the region, according to Dow Jones.
Brazil is the world's biggest producer and exporter of sugar, and the centre-south grows about 90% of the country's sugar cane. The drought cut sugarcane production in the 2014/15 growing season, which is close to an end.
There has been less rain than average in the past few months in centre-south cane-growing areas, but more than at the same time a year ago and still enough for the 2015/16 crop to develop normally, Datagro head Plinio Nastari said Thursday.
Sugar mills in the centre-south will crush 584 million metric tonnes of sugar in the 2015/16 season, and the total crush for the season, including Brazil's northeastern states, will be 642 million tonnes, Nastari said.
That compares with a centre-south crush estimated at 570.1 million tonnes in the 2014/15 season, which is close to ending, and a total crush of 627.6 million tonnes for the closing season.
Sugar production in the centre-south will be 32 million tonnes in 2015/16, and total production for Brazil will be 35.5 million tonnes, according to Datagro's forecasts, the same as the consultancy's estimates for 2014/15.
The increase in cane production will instead lead to higher production of ethanol in 2015/16 from the previous season, according to Nastari. Output of the alternate fuel from the centre-south will be 26.9 billion litres, and Brazil's total output will be 29.1 billion litres.
In 2014/15 the centre-south produced 26 billion litres of ethanol and Brazil produced 28.2 billion litres.
Brazil has the world's biggest fleet of vehicles that can run on either gasoline or pure ethanol, with 23.4 million in 2014, representing 67% of non-diesel vehicles, according to Datagro.
Reference: http://sugaronline.com/website_contents/view/1239185#sthash.uuhUOx9q.dpuf