Brazil '12/'13 sugar output seen up from prior season

Reuters
Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:11pm EDT
By Peter Murphy

* Output rise marks turn around after disappointing '11/12
* Expanded planted area helps, weather a bit better
* Center South output to expand but Northeast stagnant (Adds quote, background on recent cane industry's struggles)

BRASILIA, April 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's sugar output will rise about 5 percent in the 2012/13 season that is now starting, the government forecast on Tuesday, as better weather and replacement of old cane plants have the crop on a recovery path after output dipped last season.

Sugar production should rise to 38.9 million tonnes, government crop supply agency Conab said in its first forecast of the season, up from 36.9 million tonnes in the prior season and also ahead of the 38.2 million tonnes produced in the season before that.

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