Sugar Output in Brazil Main Region Drops 35 Percent

Bloomberg
By Carlos Caminada - May 10, 2012 12:00 PM CT
Sugar output in Brazil’s Center South, the world’s largest producing region, dropped 35 percent in the second half of April as mills delay the start of crushing after prices plummeted.

Output declined to 389,400 metric tons between April 16 and April 30, from 603,500 tons a year earlier, industry association Unica said in an e-mailed statement today. The current crop year started April 1.

Sugar has slumped 26 percent in the past nine months amid rising supplies from Brazil and India. Delaying processing of the current crop allows cane plants to increase the concentration of sucrose, the substance that’s converted into sweetener and ethanol, while mills wait for prices to rebound.

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