SUGARCANE MIX FOR ETHANOL AND SUGAR IN 2019/20 MAY REPEAT PREVIOUS CROP

The production mix between sugar and ethanol in the 2019/20 sugarcane harvest in central-southern Brazil may be similar to that of the previous crop, depending on the volume of raw material to be processed by the mills in the main sugarcane pole in the world. Several consultancies and entities have pointed out that the sector in the center-south will allocate, in percentage terms, a larger portion of cane for the manufacture of sweetener, in view of a stronger international price scenario in the second half due to a probable global supply deficit. In the assessment of the technical director of the Union of Sugarcane Industry (Unica), Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, the mills must even manufacture between 1.5 million and 2 million tons more sugar in the current season, started this month, according to the market. However, an eventual expansion in the milling would cause the mix little changed before 2018/19, when 35.2% of the total sugarcane went to sugar production. A greater supply of sugarcane would allow the industry to raise sugar production without compromising the production of ethanol. Unica has no official projections for the current crop. However, some predict an increase in total sugarcane in 2019/20, such as Copersucar, which sees processing up to 590 million tons in the season. In Reuters’s average search for other agents, including Copersucar, crushing was forecast at 572.4 million tons on March 22nd, with yields of 28.36 million tons of sugar and 29.29 billion liters of ethanol .
Source: Nova Cana