UNICA, the Brazilian sugarcane industry association, has announced the 2017-’18 harvest is substantially complete, with approximately 25.22 billion liters (6.7 billion gallons) of ethanol produced since the beginning of the season.

According to UNICA, since the beginning of the harvest season through Jan. 1, 586.39 million tons of sugarcane has been processed by mills in the south-central region of Brazil, down from 592.05 million tons during the same period of the previous harvest. Approximately 2.56 million tons was processed during the second half of December. As of Jan. 1, UNICA said that only four production units remained in operation.

Approximately 68.75 percent of the sugarcane processed during the second half of December went to ethanol production, up from 64.72 percent during the same period of 2016. Since the beginning of the current harvest season, 53.07 percent of the sugarcane processed has gone to ethanol production.

According to UNICA, 189.39 million liters of ethanol was produced during the second half of December, including 183.24 million liters of hydrous ethanol and 6.15 million liters of anhydrous ethanol. Overall, production was up 12.33 percent when compared to the same period of 2016.

Since the beginning of the current harvest season, ethanol production has reached 25.22 billion liters, including 14.5 billion liters of hydrous ethanol and 10.66 billion liters of anhydrous ethanol. This includes ethanol manufactured from sugarcane and corn feedstocks.

Corn ethanol production reached 36.67 million liters during the second half of December. Since the beginning of the current sugarcane harvest, corn ethanol production was reached 319.11 million liters, up from 140.49 billion liters during the same period of the previous year.

Ethanol sales between April 1 and Dec. 31 reached 19.99 billion liters, down 1.91 percent when compared to the 20.38 billion liters sold during the same period of 2016. UNICA said the decrease reflects a 6.89 percent reduction in domestic sales of anhydrous ethanol, which reached 7.17 billion liters last year.

The volume of domestically traded hydrous ethanol increased 0.22 percent, reaching 11.56 billion liters during from April 1 through Dec. 31, up from 11.54 billion liters during the same period of 2016.

In December, mills in the south-central region of Brazil sold 1.43 billion liters of ethanol into the domestic market, up 26.83 percent when compared to the same month of 2016. Of the 1.43 billion in sales, 677.34 million liters were sold during the second half of the month.