Brazil sugar mills 'pray' for prices amid record crop outlook
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
BRASILIA, March 30 (Bloomberg): Brazilian sugar-cane yields are beating expectations as a waning El Nino brings benefiting dry weather to crops in the world's largest producer, increasing prospects for a record harvest and declining prices.
Sugar, which has collapsed 35 per cent so far this year, may slump another 31 per cent in coming months on the outlook for a bumper crop in Brazil, Erick Figueiredo of Terra Futuros, the country's largest commodities brokerage, said in an interview from Sao Paulo.
The average concentration of sucrose is 5 per cent higher than initially estimated in February, said Jacyr Costa, chief executive officer of Acucar Guarani SA, Brazil's third-largest sugar producer by market value.
The waning of El Nino, a cyclical change in global rain patterns, is causing dry weather in areas of southeastern and central Brazil, said Expedito Rebello, research chief at the government's Meteorology Institute, known as Inmet. Sugar more than doubled last year after El Nino caused excess showers that hindered harvesting in the country and also triggered a drought that harmed crops in India, the second-largest producer.
Sugar, which has collapsed 35 per cent so far this year, may slump another 31 per cent in coming months on the outlook for a bumper crop in Brazil, Erick Figueiredo of Terra Futuros, the country's largest commodities brokerage, said in an interview from Sao Paulo.
The average concentration of sucrose is 5 per cent higher than initially estimated in February, said Jacyr Costa, chief executive officer of Acucar Guarani SA, Brazil's third-largest sugar producer by market value.
The waning of El Nino, a cyclical change in global rain patterns, is causing dry weather in areas of southeastern and central Brazil, said Expedito Rebello, research chief at the government's Meteorology Institute, known as Inmet. Sugar more than doubled last year after El Nino caused excess showers that hindered harvesting in the country and also triggered a drought that harmed crops in India, the second-largest producer.