Sugar-Cane Dryness in Brazil's Center South Will Pare Output, Unica Says

Sugar output in Brazil’s Center South, the world’s largest producing region, will rise less than expected this year as dry weather harms crops, industry group Unica said.

Sao Paulo state, where about 60 percent of Brazil’s sugar is produced, received 14 millimeters of rain (half an inch) in June, compared with an average 40 millimeters for the month in the previous 15 years, Antonio de Padua, Unica’s technical director, said. The southeastern state got 21 millimeters of rain in May, compared with a 15-year average of 50 millimeters, he said in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo yesterday.

Brazil’s Center South, which includes Sao Paulo and five other states, produces 90 percent of Brazil’s sweetener and ethanol made from sugar cane. The region is forecast to harvest 595.9 million metric tons of cane this year, up 10 percent from 2009, Unica said March 31. Sugar output was estimated at 34.1 million tons, up from 28.6 million. Padua declined to give a new estimate.

Dryness may boost the concentration of sucrose, the substance that is processed into ethanol and sugar, partly offsetting the smaller-than-expected harvest, Padua said. Crops may yield as much as 140 kilograms (309 pounds) of sucrose per ton of cane, up from a previous forecast of 138.6 kilograms per ton, he said.

“Sucrose content is going to be higher, which will partially compensate for a smaller sugar-cane crop,” Padua said.

The Center South has harvested around 40 percent of the sugar-cane crop so far this year, he said. He didn’t say when Unica will release its next estimate on sugar and ethanol output.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucia Kassai in Sao Paulo at lkassai@bloomberg.net.

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