Not everything that shines is gold, nor everything that sweetens is sweet: Sugarcane producers in Tucumán barely earn money in the middle

The news from the Tucumán sugar harvest seems encouraging. These days, there is talk of record figures in terms of planted area and superior cane yields for milling. According to technicians from EEA Obispo Colombres, more than 300,000 hectares are being harvested, representing a growth of 1.5% compared to the previous year, which would yield more tons of cane for the sugar and bioethanol industry. They also point out that there was an average increase of 0.9 points in sugar levels in the cane, which also improves industrial performance. There is talk of a super production of cane since, historically, Tucumán had between 200 to 220 thousand hectares of cane. Today, the figures oscillate between 295 and 305 thousand hectares, which is the limit that Tucumán has for sugar cane production. This growth is due to the expansion of the cane frontier towards the eastern Tucumán (displacing soybean) and the mills put in a lot of cane due to good prices in previous years. Another factor to ...