Brazil’s Unica issues sugarcane harvest update

Brazil’s Union of Sugarcane Industry (Unica) has issued a harvest update for the country’s South-Central region from April to 16 November.

Brazil’s sugarcane crush for the 2017-18 harvest was down 1.61% from April to 16 November, 2017, compared to the same period a year ago, totalling 552.948 tonnes, according to figures from Unica.

Total ethanol production reached 23.661 billion litres, up 0.20% from a year before, with 10.2 billion litres in anhydrous ethanol (+1.93%) and 13.461 billion litres of hydrous ethanol (-1.085).

Elsewhere, sugar production rose by 2.36% totalling 34.357 million tonnes.

In relation to production mix, 52.60% of the raw material obtained was used for ethanol production, while the remaining 47.40% went to sugar production.

Year-to-date, Total Recoverable Sugar (TRS) reached 137.58 kilograms per tonne of sugarcane, 2.57% higher than in the same period of the 2016/2017 cycle.