*The Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (Conab), the logistics arm of Brazil’s agrarian development ministry, has released its latest forecast for the 2024/25 sugar cane harvest, projecting a harvest of 689.8m tonnes (t). This would mark a 3.3% decrease compared to the 2023/24 harvest. However, Conab has highlighted that the last harvest cycle registered a record production figure, and the next harvest is expected to the second highest figure on record. The projected annual drop in production is largely due to less favourable climate conditions, such as lower rainfall and higher temperatures in the central-southern parts of the country. The southeast is expected to account for most of Brazil’s 2024/25 yield (64.2%), with a forecast of 442.8m t for the region, which would be down 5.6% compared to the 2023/24 cycle.