Brazil Regional Sugar Production May Fall 4%

Brazil’s Center South, the world’s largest producing region, will harvest an estimated 33 million tons of sugar this year, less than previously expected on lower crop yields, said Raizen, a sugar cane venture between Cosan SA Industria & Comercio and Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSA)

“Crop yields and sucrose content are even lower than we had expected,” Pedro Mizutani, operations vice president at Raizen, the world’s largest sugar-cane processor, said today in an interview. “We are falling short about 4 percent compared with the Unica industry association numbers.”

Sugar output in Brazil’s Center South, which accounts for about 90 percent of the country’s sugar and ethanol production, is estimated at 34.5 million metric tons, Unica said March 31.

Cane output in the region is estimated between 555 million tons and 560 million tons this year, Mizutani said at an ethanol conference in Sao Paulo. That is less than Unica’s estimate of 568.5 million tons.

Brazil is the world’s largest sugar producer. It accounts for about 54 percent of the world’s exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

source: bloomberg