The amount of sugarcane crushed in Brazil's Parana state in the first 15 days of November was down 31% year on year to 1.61 million mt, the Bioenergy Producers Association of Parana (Alcopar) said.
Parana is one of the sugarcane producing states in Center-South Brazil, the largest producing region in the world. The 2015-16 sugarcane season in Center-South started in April, with seasons usually lasting seven months.
"It has rained heavily in Parana. In some mills the rain has damaged more due to the soil type, the stoppage these days has been longer than in sandy soils. Another issue has been the intervals between the showers, after four to five days of rain, the soil with high humidity does not allow entry of harvesting machines," Alcopar director-president Miguel Tranin told Platts.
"The current fortnight continues at the same pace. The relief from this loss has been the price of ethanol," he said.
Both hydrous and anhydrous ethanol prices have surged recently for several reasons -- a 6% increase in gasoline prices late September, fewer offers on the spot market with mills storing ethanol for the inter-crop period starting next month, and with heavy rain disrupting the sugarcane harvest.
The Platts hydrous ethanol assessment ex-mill Ribeirao Preto has averaged Real 1,960/cu m ($527/cu m) this month, up from Real 1,769/cu m in October and Real 1,468.10/cu m in September.
Anhydrous ethanol assessment has averaged Real 1,954/cu m in November, up from October's Real 1,723/cu m.
Despite rain in Parana, the ATR -- or total recoverable sugar per ton of cane -- was 1.86 kg higher year on year at 136.95 kg/mt.
Sugar production totaled 104,036 mt, down 38% year on year ago, while ethanol production was down 32% at 59.4 million liters.
From the beginning of the season in April through November 15, sugarcane crushed totaled 36.3 million mt, down 7% year on year, while total sugar production totaled 2.54 million mt, down 5%, with ethanol production was down 7% to 1.35 billion liters.
Of that ethanol total, 834 million liters was hydrous ethanol -- down 13% year on year -- and nearly 513 million liters was anhydrous, up 6%, Alcopar said.
