Brazil’s new sugar season off to a slow start

BRAZIL: Mills in Brazil’s centre-south area, the world’s largest sugar producing region, made a slow start to the 2021/22 season, crushing 43% less cane in the first half of March than last year’s volume in the period as dry weather stunted cane growth.

According to a report by industry group Unica released on Thursday, sugar and ethanol plants processed 1.67 million tonnes of cane in the first two weeks of the month versus 2.95 million tonnes a year earlier.

Unica said 21 mills were crushing cane in the period compared to 31 at this time last year. It projects that 54 plants would be operational by the end of the month versus 87 last year.