Mauritius Beats Sugar Forecast, Warns on 2011 Harvest Because of Drought

Mauritius is unlikely to this year match the 452,518 metric tons of sugar produced in 2010, which beat an industry forecast, said the country’s Chamber of Agriculture.

Drought has affected sugar-cane growth and the 2011 crop may not be able to recover enough when normal weather conditions return, the Port Louis-based chamber said in an e-mailed statement today. The industry’s 2010 harvest beat an expected 450,000 tons and was lower than the 467,234 tons produced in 2009, it said. Factories milled 4.36 million tons of cane.

“The chances for productivity to match that of 2010 are very small, taking into account the last meteorological forecasts,” the chamber said.

Rainfall in December was 8 percent of the average usually recorded in sugar-cane areas, according to the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute. Sugar is the Indian Ocean island nation’s main crop, comprising 80 percent of areas under cultivation and 63 percent of agricultural exports, according to the Chamber of Agriculture.

source: bloomberg