Brazil’s sugarcane boom in trouble; land prices falling, projects delayed

In Brazil, the end of the commodities boom, with the resultant fall in ethanol and sugar prices, has caused the price of land to drop in Brazil by up to 50 percent in some sugarcane growing areas, according to executives at BrasilAgro. Further evidence of the slowdown in Brazil is the entry of Grupo Joao Lyra and three other mills into Brazil;’s equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 25 ethanol and sugar plants are now expected to be completed in 2009, compared to an original pipeline of 43 projects, according to Datagro.

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