Brazil sugar output jumps in early October but rains still a drag

Brazil’s center-south sugar output jumped in the first half of October even as heavy rainfall continued to affect harvesting in the region, the country’s main cane belt, industry group Unica said on Tuesday, October 25.

According to Unica, the sweetener’s production reached 1.83 million tonnes in the period, a 59% increase from a year ago, when mills were forced to end their operations earlier-than-expected due to adverse climate conditions.

Despite the year-on-year jump, production was still below expectations as analysts polled by financial information provider S&P Global Commodity Insight had forecast it to total 1.95 million tonnes.

Sugarcane crushing totaled 27.68 million tonnes in early October, up 40.5% from a year earlier but also below an average projection of 29.9 million tonnes, according to S&P.

“As in the previous half, harvesting operations were affected by a consistent rainfall regime in the first half of October,” Unica said in a statement, noting that there were still some 30 million tonnes of cane to be recouped as the cycle advances and if weather allows it.

“It is worth mentioning that despite hurting the current crop’s crushing, the high level of showers has favored plant development for the next crop,” the industry group added.

See below the track record of the volume of sugar (HS 1701) exported by Brazil between January 2019 and August 2022, according to the DataLiner platform.

Sugar Exports | Jan 2019 – August 2022 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Unica also said that ethanol production in early October was up 10.7% to 1.38 billion liters. The group’s ethanol data also includes fuel made from corn. Analysts had expected total sugarcane-based ethanol production to reach 1.59 billion liters.

Source: Nasdaq

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