Sao Paulo: The area under sugarcane cultivation in Brazil has fallen to its lowest in 12 years in 2023 as the farmers have shifted to more profitable crops like corn and soybean, reports Reuters.
The area under sugarcane fell to 8.29 million hectares, 0.4% lower than the previous season and lowest since 2011, said Brazil’s food supply agency Conab in its final report for the 2022-23 sugarcane crop (April-March).
The agency stated that many farmers that leased their fields for cane cultivation ended their contracts and instead planted corn and soybean as these would provide them higher financial gain.
Prices of sugar in the global markets are soaring due to low sugar output in India, and China.
Despite the lower area, the cane yield has been improved due to favorable weather. Brazil produced 610.10 million tonnes of cane, above the expectations of 598.3 million tonnes for the 2022/23 season.
The sugar production increased to 37.04 million tonnes, a 6% increase and 1.8% higher than Conab’s earlier estimate.
