Sugar Semi-Annual Report, Brazil – 5th October 2021

Brazil’s Marketing Year (MY) 2021/22 sugarcane crop is estimated at 590 million metric tons (MMT), a decrease of ten percent compared to the final estimate for MY 2020/21 (657 MMT). Dry weather, high temperatures, below average rainfall and frosts during all development stages of cane stocks led to a noteworthy drop in production. Overall, sugar prices remain firm and relatively more attractive than ethanol prices. Therefore, sugar-ethanol plants have focused on sugar production, and the sugar-ethanol production mix will be similar to the previous season. The revised estimate for Brazilian exports in MY 2020/21 is 26 MMT, raw value, a drop of 6.15 MMT relative to previous season due to lower sugar exportable surplus. As the second-largest recipient of the U.S. sugar tariff-rate quota, Brazil held a raw value allocation of 181,774 metric tons at the beginning of FY 2021.