Biofuel Briefs
UNICA: Brazil Ethanol Production Drop as Demand Improves
NEW YORK (DTN) -- The Union of Sugarcane Industry Association, Brazil's largest trade group for sugarcane and ethanol producers, said in its biweekly update report issued Tuesday, Nov. 25, that sugarcane processing in the country's South-central region slowed during the first half of November because crop failure led to low yield and diminished productivity.
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Bad weather in Brazil has hurt crop growth, with yield down 9% from year-ago levels. As a result, sugar production from crushed canes dropped 28.5% year-over-year during the first half of November, while ethanol output fell 5.1% to 1.1 billion liters year-over-year.
On sales, the group, known by its Portuguese acronym UNICA, said 1.07 billion liters of ethanol were sold during first two weeks of November, up from the 1.05 billion liters sold during the first two months of October and up 7.2% from sales for the second half of October, suggesting improved demand.
Of that total, 1.0 billion liters were sold to domestic consumers while only 67 million liters were exported. In the first two weeks of October, 1.01 billion liters were sold locally and 33 million liters exported.
The United States is among the countries that typically imports Brazilian ethanol. In recent months, however, Brazil has limited exports as its output has fallen due to a variety of problems including weather.
George Orwel can be reached at george.orwel@dtn.com
(BM/AG)
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