Brazil Region Sugar Output Triples in Dec. 2nd Half

(Bloomberg) -- Sugar output in Brazil’s Center South, the world’s biggest-producing region, almost tripled in the second half of December after growers extended harvesting to offset slower output in previous months.

Mills in the region, which accounts for about 90 percent of Brazil’s sugar output, produced 237,200 metric tons of the sweetener in the period, up from 80,600 a year earlier, the Center South Sugar and Ethanol Industry Association, known as Unica, said today in an e-mailed report.

Brazil’s sugar-cane growers, who usually harvest most of their crop during the drier April-to-November period, extended last year’s season after above-average rainfall slowed output. Growers usually hold off on harvesting when it rains because the humidity pares yields.

The amount of sugar cane processed by mills more than doubled to 6.6 million tons in the second half of last month, up from 2.88 million a year earlier, Unica said. Ethanol output doubled to 404.3 million liters (107 million gallons), the group said.

In the year, sugar output rose 1.8 percent from 2007 to 26.6 million tons, while ethanol output rose 21 percent to 24.6 billion liters, Unica said.

Mills processed 496.7 million tons of sugar cane in the harvest through the end of December, up 15 percent from a year earlier. They turned 60 percent of the crop into fuel, compared with 56 percent in 2007, Unica said.