Brazil's 2016-17 center-south sugar output to jump 10 percent

Brazil's 2016-17 center-south sugar output should increase by 10 percent compared to the previous season to 34 million tonnes, brokerage and consultancy INTL FCStone said on Tuesday. The cane crush in the new center-south crop, expected to start around March, should reach a volume of 619 million tonnes versus 599.9 million tonnes in 2015/16, INTL FCStone said.
"We expect a better weather for cane processing in the new crop, with less interruptions to operations, mainly because meteorologists see an end to El Nino during the first semester," said Joso Paulo Botelho, an INTL FCStone sugar analyst based in Campinas (Sao Paulo state). The 2015/16 center-south crop suffered from excessive rain, which caused constant stoppages to mills operations and reduced cane's sugar content. INTL FCStone believes mills will earmark more cane to sugar production in the new crop since the weakening of Brazil's currency increased their returns in reais when exporting the sweetener. "The currency slide and the recovery of sugar prices in New York late last year led many mills to fix larger volumes of sugar exports," Botelho said. Brazil's real lost 40 percent to the dollar in the last 12 months.