UNICA, the Brazilian sugarcane industry association, recently released ethanol production and sales data for the first half of September. Ethanol production reached 2.37 billion liters (626.09 million gallons), with sales at 1.3 billion gallons.

According to UNICA, mills in the country’s south-central region processed 39.49 million tons of sugarcane during the first half of September, up 1.85 percent when compared to the same period of last year. The volume of sugarcane processed, however, was down 8.3 million tons when compared to the 38.77 million tons processed during the second half of August 2019.

Since the beginning of the current harvest season, which began April 1, mills in the region have processed 437.75 million tons of sugarcane, up from 432.51 million tons processed during the same period of last year.

Ethanol production reached 2.37 billion liters during the first half of September, including 683.79 million liters of anhydrous ethanol and 169 billion liters of hydrous ethanol.

Since the beginning of the current harvest season, ethanol production has reached 22.98 billion liters, up slightly from 22.86 billion liters produced during the same period of last year.

Mills in the south-central region sold 1.3 billion liters of ethanol during the first half of September, down 7.9 percent when compared to the same period of last year. Of the 1.3 billion liters sold, 1.25 billion liters was sold domestically, with 54.69 million liters destined for export.

Domestically, sales included 336.85 million liters of anhydrous ethanol and 911.57 million liters of hydrous ethanol. Hydrous ethanol sales were down 10.63 percent when compared to the same period of last year.