LatinNews Daily - 18 August 2023

* The Companhia Nacional do Abastecimento (Conab), the logistics arm of Brazil’s agrarian development ministry, has released its latest forecast for sugar cane production for the 2023/24 harvest cycle, projecting 652.9m tonnes (t), which would mark a 6.9% increase from the 2022/23 harvest. In its press release, Conab attributed the projected increase to higher crop cultivation driven by favourable climate conditions. In terms of regional variation, Brazil’s south-east is expected to account for 63.1% of the total national production, with 412.15m t. São Paulo state is forecast to lead the south-east’s production, with a projected yield of 328.2m t. Strong production figures are also expected in Brazil’s central-western region, with 142.7m t forecast. Sugar cane producers in the centre-west are also expected to expand their cultivation land area, with a total projected expansion of 1.79m hectares (ha), which would mark a 1.5% increase compared to the centre-west’s cultivation area during the previous harvest. In terms of sugar cane products, 40.9m t of sugar and 33.83bn litres of ethanol are expected to be produced in the next harvest cycle.