Brazil's 2009 Ethanol Production Volume Set to Break Records

Renewable Energy World.com
September 8, 2009
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

The Brazilian sugar and alcohol sector will grind a record-breaking volume of sugarcane this year according to results of a second national crop survey, released last week by Conab. The results show that the total harvest is expected to reach 629.02 million tons, a 10% increase over 2008. The growth is a result of better distribution of rainfall and expanded planted area, which reached 7.74 million hectares.

For the survey, Conab sent 50 technicians into to the field. In the period August 2-15, 2009 they interviewed representatives from 389 mills in all Brazilian states.

While the current productivity index of about 81 tons per hectare will be maintained, a larger volume will be used for sugar production, representing approximately 45% of the total crop, almost 2% more than in the previous year.

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