Amid rising debate over food-versus-fuel, the world’s top sugar exporter Brazil likely to focus more on ethanol production rather than sugar.
The country is witnessing record prices for ethanol as consumption of the fuel is increased due to the lowering of covid-19 restrictions as people are travelling again. This has increased the consumption of Biofuel leading the mills to divert sugarcane to ethanol production than sugar.
As per a news report published in Bloombergquint.com, Michael McDougall, managing director at Paragon Global Markets said, “The production of ethanol is more profitable, especially for those mills that are financially tight.”
The prices of ethanol at mills in Sao Paulo rose 10% last week. The supply of cane has also been lowered due to the drought in the cane producing region. According to the industry group Unica, cane crushing has dropped 31% in the first half of April compared with last year.
