NEW YORK: Mills in Brazil's centre-south region produced 174,000 tonnes of sugar in the second half of March, 23% less than in the same period a year ago, as operations in the new sugar season got off to a slow start, industry group Unica said on Tuesday.

Sugar and ethanol producers in the world's largest sugar producing region crushed 4.99 million tonnes of cane in the second half of March, 33% less than a year ago, Unica said. Ethanol production fell 18% to 372 million liters in the period.