Brazil Cane-Crush Volume to Equal Crop in 2010-11

Brazil’s capacity to crush sugarcane will match cane production in the 2010-11 season, after a lack of availability to process the crop this year, according to Sao Paulo-based research company Datagro Ltd.

Brazil, the largest sugar producer, is likely to crush 540 million metric tons of cane in 2009-10, compared with estimated production of 570 million tons, Datagro President Plinio Nastari told a sugar-industry conference in Berlin today.

A lack of financing has delayed new capacity, Nastari said at F.O. Licht’s World Sugar Conference. The cane harvest in 2010-11 may not grow from the previous year, while crushing will increase, according to Nastari.

“Some of the large mills have started only late May,” Nastari said. “For those mills, part of the cane around them is going to remain uncut.”

Next year’s 30 million-ton increase in cane production “is going to be needed for the domestic ethanol demand increase,” Nastari said in an interview. Brazil’s sugar production could slip if it becomes more profitable to make ethanol, he said.

“We should not expect much to happen with sugar production in 2010-11,” the Datagro president said.

source: bloomberg