The bi-monthly survey conducted by the Union of Sugarcane Agroindustry (Unica) found that ethanol produced from corn represented 94% of biofuel production in the second half of January, totaling 95.37 million liters in the period. According to the entity, as the volume of sugarcane processed by the units in the Center-South totaled only 86.80 thousand tons in the first fifteen days of the month, the production of ethanol from sugar cane and sugar were residual. The amount of sugar produced reached 3.65 thousand tons in the first half of the year, while the volume of sugar cane ethanol totaled only 5.99 million liters. “With that, the total volume of ethanol produced in the fortnight reached 101.36 million liters (94.26 million liters of hydrated ethanol and 7.10 million liters of anhydrous ethanol).” According to Unica, in addition to the production of corn ethanol and the remaining stocks at the plants, the biofuel offer in the off-season was expanded with the import of 177.72 million liters of ethanol in January, according to data from the Department of Commerce Exterior (Secex). From the total amount imported in the month, 95.76 million liters were registered in ports in the Center-South. A survey updated by Unica with the companies indicates that, in the off-season, two sugarcane processing units and ten other ethanol-producing units from corn are operating in the Center-South region, three of which are exclusively dedicated to this raw material.
Source: Revista Globo Rural