São Paulo – The technical director of the Sugarcane Industry Union (Unica, in the Portuguese acronym), Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, informed this Thursday (26th) that the crop failure should affect the industry’s projection of grinding 568.50 million tonnes of cane. Since the 2011-2012 crop began, 56.66 million tonnes of cane were milled, 39.51% less than the 93.67 million tonnes processed during the same period of 2010.
In the first fifteen days of May, 32.77 million tonnes of cane were ground in the Centre-South of Brazil, which accounts for half the national production. The volume was 6.69% lower than in the same period of last year (35.13 million tonnes).
In a statement, the Unica claims that “aside from lower quality raw material and the slower pace of grinding early in the crop, we are seeing a significant reduction in agricultural production.”
Since the crop began, 59.87% of the sugarcane processed was allocated to ethanol manufacturing, which reached 2.16 billion litres. The volume of sugar made reached 2.36 million tonnes.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
