Brazil's center-south cane belt will stay dry for the next few weeks, forecaster Somar said on Thursday, speeding up the harvest of cane and output of sugar that was hampered by an unusually wet start to April. "The outlook for sugar cane is favourable because we'll have drier weather. There will be some showers, but they won't be long-lasting or in great volume," said Nadiara Pereira, a meteorologist at Somar, a private Sao Paulo-based forecaster.
The massive 580-600 million tonnes center-south cane crop and the break in wet weather has helped bring raw sugar prices close to their lowest level in nearly three years. Wet weather slows harvest and reduces the sugar content in the cane plants in the short term, but can also boost yields by helping the cane grow to a bigger size later in the season.
The world's top sugar producer is just starting to harvest what is expected to be a record cane crop, resuming the crop's expansion after two years of lower output during the widespread renewal of older, less productive cane plants. Concerns among futures traders that the slow start to Brazil's cane harvest could tighten deliveries of the commodity in May and push them back until later months had supported futures prices in previous weeks. Somar's Pereira said weather patterns indicate the autumn season now under way would turn out wetter than usual, which could slow harvest and loading at the ports again later in May, but a run of dry weeks ahead would help mills advance in harvest for now.