Strong Sugar Cane Crushing and Record Soybean Production in Brazil: Agricultural Updates

Agriculture – Unica reports higher cane crush

The latest fortnightly report from UNICA shows that sugar cane crushing in Centre-South Brazil increased by 5.5% year-on-year to 46.2mt in the second half of May as favourable weather boosts productivity. This was largely in line with the average market expectation of around 46.3mt.

Cumulatively, sugar cane crush rose 16.8% YoY to 125.4mt in the 2023/24 season so far. Meanwhile, sugar production rose by 25.2% YoY to 2.9mt in the second half of May, with around 48.8% of cane allocated to sugar production.

The market was expecting a number closer to around 2.8mt. Cumulatively, sugar production rose by 37.7% YoY to around 7mt.

 

 

Brazil’s agriculture agency, CONAB, has raised its soybean production estimates for 2022/23 as supportive weather conditions resulted in improved yields. In its monthly report, CONAB estimates domestic soybean production to reach record highs of 155.7mt in 2022/23, in line with the average market expectations and higher than its previous estimates of 154.8mt.

Soybean production was reported at 125.6mt in 2021/22.

Corn production estimates were marginally revised up to 125.7mt for 2022/23 compared to the previous estimates of 125.5mt, hovering below the lower end of the market expectations of 126mt.

In 2021/22, Brazil’s corn output was at 113.1mt.