Brazil's centre-south cane crush down on 2010 volumes

In the south of Brazil, 99.63 million tonnes of sugarcane was crushed between April 2011 (the start of the 2011/2012 harvest) and 1 June 2011, according to Unica, the sugarcane industry association.

This figure is down on the 134.17 million tonnes crushed the previous year.

Of the 99.63 million tonnes crushed, 57.12% was used in the manufacturing of ethanol, while the remaining 42.88% went towards sugar production.

The central-south region of Brazil is a major sugar and ethanol producing area.

Ethanol production reached 3.88 billion litres, a 28.74% decrease on the total output recorded for the same period in 2010. The total amount of sugar produced during this timeframe also dropped; a total of 28.8% compared to the 4.735 million tonnes produced last year.