Sugar output in Brazil's main center-south cane producing region is expected to reach a record 34.6 million tonnes in 2011/12 (April/March), up from 33.5 million tonnes this season, the Sugar Cane Industry Association (Unica) said Thursday.
Mills in the region are forecast to crush 568.5 million tonnes of cane, up from 556.7 million tonnes in 2010/11. Ethanol output was estimated at 25.5 billion liters, up slightly from 25.4 billion liters this season. "This increase in output (of ethanol) for the domestic market is smaller than the expected growth in demand due to the accelerated sales of flex-fuel cars," Unica said in its first forecast of the new cane crop.
Sugar exports from the 2011/12 center-south cane crop are seen at 24.9 million tonnes, up 0.6 million tonnes from this season, Unica said of the region's crop that accounts for 90 percent of Brazil's total cane output. The percentage of total cane crushed used for sugar production in the coming season is expected to rise to 45.3 percent from 44.7 percent this season, Unica said. Firm sugar prices are inducing mills to commit as much cane as possible to the production of the sweetener at the expense of ethanol.
Unica said that five new cane mills are expected to start operating in the 2011/12 season, compared with 10 new milling operations that started in the current season. Dry weather during the main harvest period from April through October 2010 not only reduced the output of sugar and ethanol from the current crop but also curbed the potential output of the next one.
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