StoneX sees smaller sugarcane crushing in south-central Brazil; cuts global sugar surplus

By Nayara Figueiredo SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Sugarcane crushing in central-south Brazil is expected to reach 557.5 million tonnes in the 2022/23 harvest, which started in April, estimated on Thursday the consultancy StoneX, with a cut in its projection compared to the 565.3 million seen in May. In a separate report, the consultancy also reduced expectations for the global sugar balance and began to forecast a surplus of 3.3 million tons, against 4.1 million in the previous forecast, which had been the first for the 2022 world harvest. /23, whose calendar starts in October. In Brazil, the drop in cane crushing is a consequence of a delay in the start of processing, with producers trying to increase productivity after the effects of adverse weather in 2021, StoneX said. There was also an annual reduction of 0.3% in the area to be harvested this season in the center-south, the largest producer of the crop. Even so, sugarcane crushing should surpass by 6.6% the volume processed in ...