Sugarcane crushing and production in Brazil’s central and southern regions surged in the second half of July, exceeding market analysts’ already optimistic estimates, as dry weather helped field work in the country’s main sugar belt reports Nasdaq
Data provided by industry group UNICA on Thursday showed that 52.96 million tonnes of cane were crushed in the period, up 7.8% from a year ago and a record for its data series, which tracks fortnightly figures on the sector.
This was above the 51.47 million tonnes forecast in a survey by financial data provider S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Analysts noted that only marginal cane areas in Brazil’s central-south region had problems with rains at the end of July, and the outlook for the first half of August is also very positive.
Bumper crushing led to an 11.3% increase in sugar production to 3.68 million tonnes at the end of July, UNICA said, while ethanol production rose 1.4% to 2.46 billion litres in the period.
Both also beat S&P survey forecasts of 3.58 million tonnes for sugar and 2.42 billion litres for ethanol.
Mills have been looking to allocate more cane to sugar production this season to take advantage of higher prices.