NEW DELHI – Mills in Brazil’s centre-south region produced 958,000 tn of sugar during the second fortnight of October, down 49.4% from 1.89 mln tn produced in the year-ago period, the country’s sugarcane industry association, known by its Portuguese acronym UNICA, said in a report. Sugar season in Brazil, the top producer and exporter of the sweetener, runs from April to March, with mills in the centre-south region crushing cane till October. Mills in the region, which account for more than 90% of the country’s total sugar output, crushed 24.86 mln tn sugarcane during Oct 16-31, down 17.5% on year, the association said. The sharp fall in sugar production can be attributed to heavy rainfall in the key producing region in recent weeks, which delayed cane harvest, UNICA said. Until Nov 1, 52 sugar factories had stopped operating for the 2018-19 season, it said. During Apr-Oct, mills in the region crushed 508.34 mln tn cane, down 4.4% on year. During the same period, they produced 24.35 mln tn sugar, down 26.7% on year. The fall in sugar production in the region during the period was steeper compared to cane crushed because mills have been diverting more cane towards ethanol, prices of which are more attractive than those of sugar. Diversion of more cane towards production of ethanol could take the season’s sugar output lower by at least 9 mln tn from that produced last year, UNICA had earlier said. In 2017-18, mills in Brazil’s centre-south region had produced 36.06 mln tn of the sweetener. Mills in the region produced 27.26 bln ltr ethanol during Apr-Oct compared with 22.66 bln ltr in the corresponding period last year. Of the total cane crushed so far, 35.9% was used for sugar production, while the rest was used to make ethanol, UNICA said. In the corresponding period last year, around 47.6% of the cane crushed was used to produce sugar.