Sep 03, 2010
Dry Weather in Southern Brazil Impacting Sugarcane Tonnage
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Persistent dry weather in southern Brazil continues to take a toll on the Brazilian sugarcane crop. Sao Paulo is the largest sugarcane producing state in Brazil responsible for nearly 60% of the sugarcane grown in the country and many regions of the state are now dryer than at any time during the last twenty years. The dry season in southern Brazil started in April (a month earlier than normal) and there has been very little rainfall since then.
In their second estimate of the 2010/11 sugarcane crop, the Union of Sugarcane Industries (Unica) estimate that the sugarcane production in southeastern Brazil will be 570 million tons, which is 7% lower than their initial estimate of 610 million tons earlier in the year. In the hardest hit areas of Sao Paulo, sugarcane tonnage is expected to be down at least 20%. If it doesn't rain until the end of September, the estimate could move even lower.
The extended dry weather is forcing some producers to harvest their sugarcane before it has time to mature. The situation this year is exactly opposite that of 2009. During September to November of 2009, very heavy rains prevented farmers from harvesting all their sugarcane and the sugarcane they did harvest had a lower sucrose content, which lowered the amount of sugar produced per ton of sugarcane.
It's not all bad news for sugarcane producers in Brazil. Dry weather has a benefit in that it helps to concentrate the sucrose in the cane which increases the amount of sugar recovered from each ton of sugarcane. Unica estimates that each ton of sugarcane this year will yield 142 kilograms of sugar compared to 138 kilograms last year.
The dry weather has also prompted state officials to prohibit any type of sugarcane burning, even at night. In fields where the sugarcane is harvested by hand, the general practice is to burn off the leaves before harvesting. This practice facilitates hand harvesting, but it generates a tremendous amount of air pollution. Burning had been limited to only nighttime hours, but that too has now been prohibited for the remainder of the dry season. As mechanical harvesting replaces hand harvesting, the practice of burning sugarcane fields is being phased out in Sao Paulo and it should be completely eliminated within the next few years.