BRAZIL: CONAB sees 2010/11 crush up 7.8%
Published: 09/03/2010, 8:12:18 AM
CONAB says Brazil's sugarcane output for crushing for the 2010/11 crop year will rise an estimated 7.8% to a record 651.5 million metric tonnes, according to Dow Jones.
The increase reflects good rainfall in the year-ago period in the main sugarcane growing south-centre region of the country, according to Brazil's National Commodities Supply Corp., or CONAB.
Dry weather since April, however, will cause losses in the next harvest, according to CONAB. The dry weather favors the current harvesting of the crop, which was an estimated 60% collected in August in most of the sugarcane fields, according to the agency.
The agency estimated that 54.9%, or 357.5 million tonnes, of the sugarcane is destined to produce 28.4 billion litres of ethanol, with the remaining 45.1%, or 294 million tonnes, to be used to produce sugar.
The estimate, the agency's second, pegs sugar output from the current crop at 38.1 million tonnes, an increase of 15% from 33 million tonnes produced in the 2009/10 crop year. Domestic consumption will account for 11.1 million tonnes, or 29%, of the estimated sugar output from the current crop.
The area devoted to sugarcane rose 10.2% to 8.2 million hectares, occupying 0.95%, or less than 1%, of the national territory, according to CONAB.