São Paulo – The amount of sugarcane processed in the Brazilian Midsouth from January to September was 381.3 million tonnes. The result is down 7.78% from the same period of last year (413.58 million tonnes) according to a report released this Tuesday (9th) by the Sugarcane Industry Union (Unica).
Year-to-date as of late September, 24 million tonnes of sugar were manufactured, as against 26 million tonnes in the same period of 2011. Ethanol output amounted to 15.1 billion litres (down 11.3% from the same period last year), of which 5.99 billion litres consisted of anhydrous ethanol (down 8.6% from 2011) and 9.13 billion litres consisted of hydrated ethanol (down 12.9%), used in bi-fuel vehicles (fuelled by both ethanol and gasoline).
According to Unica’s interim president Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, despite the lower ethanol output, plants are operating at a fast pace to keep up with demand. “In the last few 15-day periods, companies have given priority to ethanol production, and in the last half of September production reached 19.93 litres of anhydrous ethanol per tonne of cane processed. This rate of production is important to ensure domestic demand and export contracts are both met,” he said.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
