Ethanol production in Brazil's center-south region for the 2012/2013 harvest as of April 15 reached 180.55 million liters, down by 29.61% from the same period in the 2011/2012 harvest, sugar cane industry association UNICA said Thursday.
UNICA said 161.87 million liters of hydrous ethanol and 18.68 million liters of anhydrous ethanol were produced as of April 15. The 2012/2013 harvest began in April, a spokeswoman for the trade group said.
As of April 15, 4.74 million mt of sugar cane was milled, down 32.23% from the prior harvest season, when 6.99 million mt was milled. 34.43% of this went to sugar production, and 65.57% to ethanol production. 70 mills were in production in the region, compared to 113 in the same period last year. UNICA said that in the period to May 1, 126 mills were in production, compared to 212 in 2011.
Sales of ethanol by producers in the region were 673.66 million liters, up 36.23% on the same period in last year's harvest. 414.20 million liters were of hydrous ethanol, of which 17.22 million liters were for export and 396.98 million liters for the domestic market, up 91.11% from 2011.
Domestic sales of anhydrous ethanol until April 15 were 229.97 million liters, down from 277.02 million liters in the same period a year earlier. International anhydrous ethanol sales were 29.5 million liters, the data showed.
Total sugar production until April 15 was 152,080 mt, down 28.95%. UNICA said it expected figures for first-half May would also be disappointing.
"For the second half of April, the expectation is that the rains observed at the end of the month will prejudice the harvest, and cause a reduction in the quality of prime material, which will be harvested in the first 15 days of May," Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, technical director of UNICA, said in a statement accompanying the data.
