London, 30 November 2011: Reuters

Centre-south Brazil is on track to produce 490 million tonnes of sugarcane in 2011/12, representing the first fall in sugar production in the South American country in a decade, Plinio Nastari, president of consultancy Datagro, said on Monday.

He told the annual International Sugar Organization (ISO) seminar that he expected total sugar production in Brazil to fall to 35.4 million tonnes in 2011/12 from 38.0 million in 2010/11. Brazil is the world's top sugar producer and exporter. Later Nastari told Reuters that the centre-south Brazilian cane harvest was expected to end a few weeks early this year, possibly around December 10-12.

"There is a lack of cane left in the fields," he said. Nastari said the weaker sugar production in 2011/12 was due to a combination of adverse weather and aging cane plants.

He said that the average age of Brazilian cane was now 3.8 years, compared with a desirable level of 2.7 years, reflecting falling rates of cane renovation, a consequence of the global financial crisis of 2008. Nastari said that the current rate of renovation of cane fields in Brazil was running at around 9-14 percent, compared with 15-17 percent in normal conditions.

"There has been a dramatic reduction in the rate of renovation of cane fields," he said.

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