Brazil to produce more sugar, less ethanol

AFP, 12/13/2012

Brazil’s sugarcane production will rise 6.5 percent this year but ethanol output will slump 5.22 percent as a greater focus is put on exporting sugar, the agriculture ministry said Wednesday.

Data from the national crop-forecasting agency Conab said sugarcane production in the world’s leading producer could reach 595.13 million tons during the 2012-2013 harvest, up from 560.36 million in 2011-2012.

“Improved weather conditions from the second half of the year in the main producing areas, such as the central-south, makes possible an increased volume of sugarcane for the milling season,” an official report said.

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Brazil’s Domestic Sugar Sales Seen More Profitable Than Exports

Isis Almeida – Bloomberg Businessweek, 8/14/2012

Sugar sales in the domestic market in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, were more profitable than exports last week for the first time in more than two months, according to Cepea, a University of Sao Paulo research group.

Local sales were on average 2.7 percent more profitable than exports in the week ended Aug. 10 as international prices dropped, Cepea said in a report yesterday. Exports were 0.4 percent more profitable than shipping the sweetener a week earlier and 5.3 percent more advantageous in the week ended July 27, Cepea data showed. Raw sugar traded in New York slid 5.7 percent last week as the harvest in Brazil gathered pace.

“After more than two months with exports showing more advantage than the domestic market, Cepea figures indicate that this scenario inverted last week,” Heloisa Lee Burnquist, an analyst at Cepea, said in the report.

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Analysis: Brazil’s shuttered sugarcane mills targets for takeover

Reese Ewing and David Brough - Reuters, 8/6/2012

SAO PAULO/LONDON (Reuters) – Brazilian sugar cane mills are vulnerable to a wave  of takeovers in which deep-pocketed groups devour fragile neighbors, while soft  sugar and ethanol prices weaken small mills and make building new ones too  costly, industry analysts said.

Although efficient smaller mills will survive, more of the world’s sugar production is likely to fall into the hands of large traders such as Bunge , Cargill and Louis Dreyfus . Oil companies including Brazil’s Petrobras and traditional sugar giants such as Cosan and France’s Tereos will also expand by way of mergers and acquisitions of smaller rivals.

Newcomers may also enter the Brazilian cane business, albeit late, as the industry positions itself for Asian-driven growth in sugar demand.

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Softs – sugar gains on Brazil, India crop woes; coffee edges lower

Forexpros, 7/9/2012

U.S. soft futures were mostly higher during early U.S. morning trade on Monday, with sugar prices firming on the back of concerns over crop conditions in top growers Brazil and India.
Meanwhile, coffee prices edged lower in thin rangebound trade, while cotton prices were higher as investors awaited the release of the USDA’s weekly crop progress report due later in the day.
On the ICE Futures U.S. Exchange, sugar futures for October delivery traded at USD0.2246 a pound, climbing 1%. It earlier rose by as much as 1.5% to trade at a session high of USD0.2250 a pound.
Prices hit a six-week high of USD22.68 a pound on July 5, as concerns that heavy rains in Brazil could damage sugarcane crops in the country’s center-south region boosted sentiment on the sweetener in recent weeks.
Brazil’s top sugar industry group Unica said last week that sugar production in the center-south region in the first half of June came in at 1.37 million tonnes, 32% below the same period last year, as rains “severely hampered” the cane harvest.

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Push for ethanol sours in Brazil amid low sugar prices

Leslie Josephs – The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires, 05/13/2012

Sugar prices near 20-month lows have raised questions over Brazil’s future as a leader in both the sugar and ethanol industries.

The South American nation is the largest grower of sugar cane, which can be used to make sugar or ethanol from fermented sugar-cane juice. Its cane fields are growing old, and Brazil is grappling with how to reinvigorate them amid low prices and years of neglect in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

The industry is also trying to plot a course for ethanol production at a time when Brazil’s government—which determines how much ethanol is used in ethanol-gasoline blends and whose state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA,PBR -2.80% controls gasoline prices—is focusing attention on large offshore oil reserves.

Factbox: Brazil: the world’s 21st Century breadbasket

Reese Ewing – Reuters, 06/21/2011

Brazil has for centuries been known as a leading producer and exporter of the world’s breakfast foods — orange juice, coffee, sugar and cocoa.

But over the past two and a half decades since the opening of the economy to foreign investment, Latin America’s largest economy has also become a leading producers of important grains and meats, through investments in technology and land.

Following is a list of most of Brazil’s main agricultural products and exports:

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Sugar climbs as port delays in Brazil curb supply; cocoa falls

Isis Almeida – Bloomberg, 06/02/2011

Sugar climbed in New York and erased all of yesterday’s decline in London as port congestion in top producer Brazil curbed supplies. Cocoa declined.

Cosan SA Industria & Comercio and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA)’s Brazilian joint venture expects a backlog of sugar shipments at the country’s ports to last through July, Pedro Mizutani, the venture’s vice president for sugar, ethanol and bioenergy production, said yesterday. Demand for white, or refined, sugar is increasing in Muslim nations ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting period that starts in about August.

“There is a large need for physical sugar to get to the refineries,” Connor Noonan, an analyst at Castlestone Management Ltd. in London, said in an e-mail today. “With the current delays out of Brazil, we are seeing a demand for any sugar that is already on the market.”

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Brazil mulls leasing farmland to foreigners

Peter Murphy – Reuters, 05/09/2011

Workers harvest soy in a farm in Mato Grosso March 26, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Paulo Whitaker

Brazil may start leasing farm land to foreigners to find a way around new legal restrictions on land sales and attract more foreign investment, the agriculture minister said.

Last year, foreigners seeking to buy large plots of land began running into legal roadblocks, after the attorney general’s office reinterpreted real estate law amid concern over property speculation by overseas investors.

But leftist President Dilma Rousseff, who took office in January, is looking for ways to ease the restrictions on foreign investment in the farm sector. Rousseff, who is more pragmatic than her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wants to encourage productive foreign investment while still fending off speculators.

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Sugar prices soar on global supply concerns

Sandy Shore – The Associated Press, 09/11/2010

Sugar prices soared Friday after bad weather in Brazil slowed down shipments from that country. The pinch comes amid strong global demand and tight supplies for sugar.

Sugar for October delivery settled up 0.3 cent at 22.73 cents a pound. The contract price has risen nearly 58 percent since early May.

The recent rally occurred because rains have delayed shipments from Brazil, the world’s largest sugar producer, Lind-Waldock senior market strategist Stuart Kaufman said.

It is the latest in a string of weather-related issues that have plagued the market, from a drought in Russia to excessive rain in Indonesia.

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The end of sugar boom in sight on “huge” Brazil output

Supunnabul Suwannaki-Bloomberg, 02/02/10

Raw sugar prices probably will decline from a 29-year high this year as a “huge increase” in production driven mainly by Brazil may balance the market, according to German research company F.O. Licht.

“The foundation for the end of the sugar boom is currently being laid,” Christoph Berg, the company’s managing director, said in an interview at a conference in Manila today. “Prices are to fall over the course of 2010.”

The raw variety more than doubled last year, gaining the most since 1974, after rains and drought cut supply in Brazil and India, the largest producers.

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