At a high level
2015/16 sugarcane growing season reaches its highest volume, with
climate conditions favorable to plant development and productivity results
The bulk of the crop was destined
for the production of ethanol
Weather conditions were favorable
for sugarcane to develop properly in the
main producing area (South Central re-
gion) in the 2015/16 growing season, but
some states experienced difficult harvest-
ing conditions. The fact is, the area har-
vested during the season of the crop in
Brazil registered a reduction (3.9%), but
the volume harvested increased greatly
(4.9%) and reached the highest amount,
according to data detected by the Nation-
al Food Supply Agency (Conab) at the
past decade. The total volume amounted
to upwards of 665 million tons.
Excessive precipitation was registered
in the months of November and December
2015, especially in the states of Mato Gros-
so do Sul and Paraná, as well as in the lead-
ing sugarcane producing state, São Paulo.
This made harvest operations difficult, and
part of the crop was left in the field for next
year, thus reducing the number of hectares
harvested in this growing season, say Conab
sources. Furthermore, the state agency men-
tioned the influence exerted within this as-
pect by the cessation of operations of two
production units in the State of Alagoas.
On the other hand, productivity made
a good recovery in this growing season,
with favorable climate conditions through-
out the South Central region and, by coin-
cidence, by higher rates where this factor
interfered with the harvest: 26.9% in the ter-
ritory of Mato Grosso do Sul and 17.9% in
the state of Paraná, says Djalma Fernandes
de Aquino, from Conab. In São Paulo, per-
formance per area equally went up con-
siderably: 12.1%. The Northeast, in turn,
had to put up with drought conditions, re-
sulting into a smaller production volume,
but this did not prevent the Country from
achieving a positive final figure.
Productivity in the 2015/16 growing sea-
son achieved the best results in the past five
years, with 76,909 kilograms per hectare,
while the production volume is the highest
since the 2005/06 growing season, accord-
ing to Conab numbers. In area, over a pe-
riod of 11 years, the 2013/14 and 2014/15
growing seasons were more expressive
than the present one and, in volume per
area, the highest level was achieved in the
2009/10 growing season (with 81,585 kg/
ha). In the South Central region, the per-
formance of the past crop again exceeded
80 tons per hectare: 80.2 t/ha, according to
Conab sources; and 83 t/ha, according to the
Sugarcane Technology Center (CTC).
Anyway, the so-called Total Recoverable
Sugar (ATR, in the Portuguese acronym) did
not keep pace with the improvement in pro-
duction, dropping in the general estimate
of the Country conducted by Conab, from
136.52 to 131.44 kg/ton of sugarcane, with
influence upon the production of deriva-
tives. The total volume of sugar decreased
by 5.8%, while the production of ethanol
went up 6.3%, due to the higher price of this
hydrated fuel (13.7%). Therefore, taking the
sugarcane crop as a whole, the destination
for the production of biofuel was not only
prevalent, but it equally went up.
This happened, as emphasized by ana-
lyst Djalma Aquino, because the consump-
tion of ethanol in 2015 rose considerably,
mainly due to the more favorable econom-
ic relation compared with common gasoline
prices. This stimulus occurred, in general, as
a result of the higher price of the fossil fuel
and because of tax alterations in producing
states, which favored hydrated ethanol.
14
OPÇÃO LÍQUIDA
Liquid option
Mix de produtos da cana brasileira
favorece etanol (%)
Safras
Açúcar Etanol
2011/12
49,8
50,2
2012/13
49,7
50,3
2013/14
45,2
54,8
2014/15
43,1
56,9
2015/16
40,4
59,6
Fonte:
Conab
CANA E SAFRAS
Sugarcane and crops
Últimos números da cana-de-açúcar no Brasil
Fonte:
Conab
Safra
Área (mil ha) Produtividade (kg/ha) Produção (mil t)
2011/12
8.362,6
67.081
560.955,2
2012/13
8.485,0
69.407
588.915,7
2013/14
8.811,4
74.769
658.822,3
2014/15
9.004,5
70.495
634.767,0
2015/16
8.654,2
76.909
665.586,2
