Brazil will increase sugar output and sales in the current 2004/05 (May-April) season, trade house Louis Dreyfus said on Thursday.
Guy Hogge, manager of the sugar and alcohol division, told reporters at a conference in Moscow the company expected an increase in cane output to 378.5 million tonnes from 357.2 million last season.
Sugar output was expected to rise to 26.6 million tonnes from 24.8 million.
"Domestic consumption is static, and it is in the field of exports that we see a dramatic increase in the 2004/05 season effectively driven by Asian demand for sugar," Hogge said.
Exports might rise to 18.35 million tonnes from 14.60 million.
Hogge said Brazil could expand future sugar output given its low costs and the availability of around 90 million hectares of free land for new plantings.
"We think it is safe to assume that Brazil will continue to expand, as long as prices remain above six cents per pound, as they are at the moment," he said.
Hogge expected China and India to require substantial imports.
He also said output in the United States and the European Union could decline as they yielded to world pressure to cut subsidies to producers.
"We feel the world will actually need Brazil to produce more sugar, and it's no longer valid to assume that because Brazil will be exporting more, the price will fall. The sugar is actually required," Hogge said.
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