São Paulo – The volume of sugarcane processed at plants in Mid-South Brazil was down 17.5% in the second half of June from the first half, according to a survey released this Wednesday (10th) by the Sugarcane Industry Union (Unica, in the Portuguese acronym).
In the first half of June, 35.8 million tonnes were processed; in the second half, the volume dropped to 29.1 million tonnes. The volume was also down (8.2%) from the second half of June 2012, when output was 31.7 million.
According to the Unica, the decline was a consequence of rainfall in some of the producing regions, which made the harvest harder to process and reduced the supply of raw material available to the plants.
Throughout the entire crop period (from April through July 1st), however, processed volume was up from 128.38 million tonnes to 180.98 million tonnes.
The trend of increase in ethanol production seen in past surveys took place again. In the second half of June, 41.9% of the raw material was allocated to sugar manufacturing. In the second half of June 2012, the rate was 47.79%.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
