Brazil’s Center South Sugar Cane Estimate Cut by Archer

(Bloomberg) – The sugar cane crop in Brazil’s Center South, the main producing region of the world’s biggest grower, will be smaller in the season staring this month than estimated in March, according to Archer Consulting.

Cane output in the area will total 512 million metric tons, Arnaldo Luiz Correa, a director at the Sao Paulo-based consultancy, said in a report e-mailed March 31. It was Archer’s third estimate for the crop and last month’s forecast was for 521 million tons. Production in the 2011-12 season totaled 494.3 million tons as of Feb. 15, data from industry group Unica show. Most of the harvest has been gathered.

Sugar production will be 32.47 million tons, down from last month’s forecast of 32.56 million tons, Archer said in the report. Output this season reached 31.3 million tons as of Feb. 15, according to Unica. Sugar exports may reach 24.5 million tons, according to the consultancy.

Ethanol production will be 21.4 billion liters (5.7 billion gallons), down from last month’s forecast of 22.3 billion liters, Correa said. Both sugar and ethanol are made from raw material sugar cane in Brazil.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at ialmeida3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net