Brazil’s driest summer in 70 years set to send sugar prices soaring

Brazil, which accounted for 28% of global sugar output last year and 57% of exports, had its driest summer in at least seven decades in the Center-South region, damaging tropical crops including sugar cane, coffee and oranges.

Brazilian cane-grower Jose Rodolfo Penatti can see evidence from his window that the world is heading for its first sugar production deficit in four years.

On the 150 acres his family has farmed in Sao Paulo state since the 1950s, stalks are half the normal height of more than 3m and brown rather than green, after a drought from January through March parched the Center-South region. “It’s the worst scenario I’ve ever seen,” said Penatti, who estimates he’ll lose 20% of his harvest.