Brazil Sugar-Cane Forecast Raised by Unica on Rain

Sugar-cane growers in Brazil’s Center South, the world’s largest producing region, will harvest more than previously expected as rainfall benefits crops, a director at industry association Unica said.

Output of the tropical plant used to make sugar and ethanol will rise to a record of between 580 million and 590 million metric tons in the season starting April 1, compared with about 580 million tons estimated in Dec. 20, Unica’s technical director Antonio de Padua Rodrigues said in a telephone interview today. Production will rise from 531.3 million tons in the current crop year.

… Full text: www.businessweek.com/news/2013-01-23/brazil-sugar-cane-forecast-raised-by-unica-on-rain

Tags: global sugar exports, crop yields, higher- yielding, varieties, replanting, six harvests, delays