The latest news on rising sugar prices due to fires in Brazil damaging sugar crops has been published 22 hours ago in prose on August 28, 2024

Sugar prices on Tuesday continued their strong recovery from Monday, with the raw sugar contract for October expiration closing up 0.56 cent at 19.60 cents a pound after hitting a five-week high of 19.68 cents a pound. The October sugar contract rose 4.2 percent to $548 a tonne.

Fires triggered by drought and high temperatures in Brazil have damaged sugar cane plantations in Sao Paulo, Brazil's main sugar-producing state. Sugarcane industry group Orplana said about 2,000 fires in Sao Paulo affected up to 60,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations over the weekend. Green Pool's commodities experts said the fires could lead to the loss of up to 5 million tonnes of sugar cane.

Sugar prices have risen sharply since last Thursday, when Brazilian government harvest forecaster Conab cut its 2024/25 sugar production estimate for south-central Brazil to 42 million tonnes from 42.7 million tonnes previously, citing lower cane yields due to drought and high temperatures. Separately, according to Unica's August 13 report, sugar production in Brazil's south-central region for the 2024/25 marketing year ending July increased by 8% year-on-year to 20,753 MMT.

The Brazilian Sugarcane Producers' Association (Orplana) said about 58,000 hectares of land had been burned in Sao Paulo state, more than 1% of the state's area.