LatinNews Daily - 19 April 2024

*The Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (Conab), the logistics arm of Brazil’s agrarian development ministry, has released its latest forecast for the 2023/24 sugar cane harvest cycle, projecting a harvest of 713.2m tonnes (t). This would mark a record harvest and an increase of 16.8% from the 2022/23 cycle. In a press release, Conab attributes the stronger harvest figures to favourable climate conditions in key sugar-producing regions, such as Brazil’s southeast. In terms of sugar cane products, sugar production is projected to total 45.68m t, which is also a record figure and would mark a 24.1% annual increase. Biofuels production is also expected to rise, totalling 35.61bn litres of fuels, up 15.0% in annual terms. Sugar cane bagasse (the residue of crushed sugarcane used in power generation) is projected to total 29.69bn litres, up 11.9%, while 5.92bn litres of ethanol from maize is expected to be produced, which would mark a 33.1% rise from the previous harvest cycle.