In the first half of December, cane crush in Brazil’s center-south was up 21.9 percent YOY. With the sugar share—the percentage of sugarcane crushed for sugar rather than for ethanol manufacturing—for that period at just 28 percent, sugar production was only 418,000 metric tons (MT), down more than 18 percent YOY.
For the crop year to date, April through mid-December, cane crush is down 4 percent YOY at 557.1 million metric tons (MMT). With the season-to-date sugar share below 36 percent, total output is down nearly 27 percent at 26.2 MMT of sugar.
Much of the cane in the fields is older, and recent dry weather could pressure cane tonnage, lowering cane available for crush. While dry weather can improve cane’s sugar content, the effect might be minimal.
Exports through December, meanwhile, are down by almost 31 percent.
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