But Unica predicts that crushing will stabilize in 2019-20, matching the current season's level. Rodrigues declined to give an exact prediction for sugarcane processing next year, cautioning it is still early to make a precise forecast.
By mid-December, the amount of sugarcane processed in the center-south of Brazil had stood at 556.8 million tonnes, according to the industry group. The 2019-20 season will continue to be "very alcoholic" with millers continuing to direct a majority of the cane to producing ethanol due to the fuel's relative price advantage over sugar, Rodrigues said. Some 65 percent of the center-south cane was directed to ethanol production in 2018, Unica data showed.
Yields next season could increase 0.5 tonne per hectare as the average age of cane fields will fall from 3.72 years to 3.66 years, said Luiz Antonio Dias Paes, market and business director at sugarcane group Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira SA (CTC). That would offset an expected decrease in planted area of around 1 percent, as some farmers switch to grains, Paes said. "So far, all is going well. If we have a normal summer, the expectation is that sugarcane yields will grow," Paes said.