Brazil's center-south is approaching the end of this year's sugarcane season much earlier than expected, as drier-than-normal weather during most of the last weeks sped up harvesting and led to several mills announcing the end of crushing.

The main Brazilian sugar belt crushed 32.6 million tonnes of cane in the second half of October, 30% more than in the same period a year earlier, a similar quick-pace performance seen in previous two-week periods.

Sugar production reached 1.51 million tonnes, 57% higher, while ethanol output reached 2.04 billion liters, 45% more than in same period last year.

The quick current pace of the harvest will lead to a longer inter-crop period. Center-south mills normally crush until early December, closing down then to come back around the end of March. But most will be done by November this year and there will not likely be much cane to be processed early next season.

Unica said that 67 mills have already finished crushing by the end of October, versus 52 that have done so in the same period a year earlier.