In Brazil, Unica reported that the amount of sugarcane processed in Brazil’s Center-South totaled 27.64 million tons in the second half of September, 31.68% lower than the 40.46 million tons of the last year. Ethanol production decreased 19.81%, reaching 1.63 billion liters, with 493.75 million liters corresponding to anhydrous and 1.14 billion to hydrated.
These figures portray the greater targeting of the raw material processed for the manufacture of ethanol. In the last fifteen days of September, the indicator registered 66.92% of sugarcane directed to the production of biofuel. This percentage is significantly higher than the 53.45% observed in the same fortnight of 2017.
Since the beginning of the harvest, sugar production reached 22.27 million tons, compared to 29.34 million tons in the same period in 2017. In the case of ethanol, there are 24.38 billion liters produced, of which 7.54 billion liters anhydrous and 16.84 billion hydrated. The latter shows a growth of 51.87% in relation to the accumulated 2017/2018 harvest.
According to Antonio de Padua, “the expansion of the production of ethanol registered to date, also considering the trend of change in the production mix of the companies, should result in a reduction in the total sugar supply in the 2018/2019 crop of at least 9 million tonnes in comparison with the quantity produced in the last year.”