RAINFALL FORCES 132 MILLS TO EXTEND CRUSH INTO DECEMBER

摘要

Sugarcane crushing in the Centre/South (CS) fell further to 14.578 mln tonnes in the second half of November from 21.296 in the first half of the month and 15.271 mln in the same period a year ago, Unica data showed. As expected in the last quarter of the year, heavy rainfall in all sugarcane states led to a reduction of the harvest pace, besides the postponement of the end of crushing at many mills, said Unica's technical director, Antonio de Padua Rodrigues. Only 45 plants finished cane processing in the second half of November, much less than the 105 projected by Unica just two weeks ago. In total, just 131 units had completed harvesting by the beginning of December, down from 150 in 2017. This means that 132 mills continued crushing into December this year, much more than the 76 mills projected last month.