NEW YORK: Brazil’s Centre-South sugar production in the first half of June is likely to have been capped by rains, according to estimates by analysts, who expect output below that of the previous fortnight. Brazil’s sugar and ethanol industry group Unica is expected to release official data on production for that period in the coming days.

A survey by S&P Global Commodity Insights, as well as a projection by forecaster EarthDaily Agro, found that mills in the Centre-South lost three days of operations due to rains in the first half of June. The S&P survey indicates that Unica will show sugar production of 2.54 million tonnes for the fortnight, below the nearly 3 million tonnes produced in the previous 15-day period.

“After two production records in the prior fortnights, crush operations were hampered by rains in 1H June,” Luciana Torrezan, head of sugar analytics with S&P Global Commodity Insights, said. The survey indicates a sugarcane crush of 40.16 million tonnes.

Analyst Felippe Reis at EarthDaily Agro said, however, that the weather during the second half of June has been ideal with possibly no days lost to rain, so mills will have the chance to advance quickly with the processing of a near-record crop this season. Agricultural yields are looking very good this year, according to Archer Consulting.

The consultancy said it had seen data regarding tonnes of cane per hectare from 150 mills in Brazil and on average they show an increase in productivity of around 20%.