Fires in Brazil drive up sugar futures in the US and UK, revealing significant losses to the sector

Sugar futures closed higher on Tuesday (27), amid growing concern about the losses caused by the fires ravaging Brazil's main sugarcane producing region. The devastation is affecting both the current harvest, with immature sugarcane fields being burned, and the stubble, compromising the next harvest. The Organization of Sugarcane Producers Associations of Brazil (Orplana) revised its estimates of losses in São Paulo upwards, indicating that the fire has already devastated 80 thousand hectares of sugarcane, a significant increase in relation to the 60 thousand hectares previously estimated. The losses are now estimated at more than 500 million reais. According to the Reuters news agency, São Paulo is the largest sugarcane producer in the country, accounting for about half of the national production. The expected losses in São Paulo's crops have been one of the main factors in the rise in global sugar prices. On ICE Futures in New York, the October 2024 raw sugar contract was traded ...