The Oil Rally Makes Dessert Expensive When Cane Turns Into Fuel
- Brazil sugarcane processors switch to ethanol over sweetener
- Global sugar market faces deficit amid Asian dry weather
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This year’s rebound in oil prices has an unlikely victim: the dessert plate.
To understand why, look no further than Usina Batatais SA, a sugar-cane processor in Sao Paulo. Enticing fuel margins mean the company is using a bigger cane crop to produce more ethanol, while keeping its raw sugar output unchanged. Even after sugar prices surged recently, “there’s no time and cane anymore” to make a switch, said Bernardo Biagi, Batatais’ president.