Brazil Sugar Output Will Rise to Record on Weather - Conab

Sugar output in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer, will rise 17 percent this year as drier weather will favor harvesting and after cane growers increased planting, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Brazilian mills will produce 38.7 million metric tons of the sweetener in 2010, up from 33.1 million tons last year, the ministry’s crop-forecasting agency, known as Conab, said today in an e-mailed statement. Mills will process a record 664.3 million tons of sugar-cane into sweetener and ethanol, up from 604.5 million tons last year, Conab said.

The rainy period in the Center South, where about 90 percent of Brazil’s sugar is made, came before the harvesting season this year, helping the plants develop, Conab said. Last year excess rains during the April-November season led mills to halt output several times because humidity reduces sugar cane’s sucrose, the substance that mills process into sweetener.

“The forecast for the next three months is for normal rainfall in the entire Center South,” Conab said in the report. “This will benefit harvesting, as well as industrial yields.”

Sugar has plunged 44 percent this year on expectation output in Brazil and India, the second-biggest producer, will increase.

Brazilian sugar-cane growers increased planting 9.2 percent to 8.09 million hectares (20 million acres). Ten news mills came online to process the crop, Conab said.

Mills will process 54.6 percent of their cane into ethanol and 45.4 percent into sugar, Conab said. Ethanol output will rise 11 percent from last year to 28.5 billion liters (7.52 billion gallons), Conab said.

source: businessweek