Brazil's sugar industry giant Copersucar, a cooperative that operates in the trade of sugar and ethanol, plans to increase its revenues for the 2009/2010 crops by 61%, when compared to the previous period.
On announcing a new associate, company Pioneiros Bioenergia, the organization also disclosed estimated revenues of 8.5 billion reais (US$ 4.9 billion) in the coming crop.
Copersucar is one of the main private companies in sugar exports in the world and answers to 5% of all the international trade of the commodity. The organization exports to Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Canada.
With the entrance of Pioneiros as an associate, the company has started selling the production of 35 mills in São Paulo, Paraná and Minas Gerais. Pioneiros has as its main shareholders Cícero Junqueira Franco and Arnaldo Shigueyuki Enomoto.
According to figures disclosed by a Copersucar spokesperson, the company's growth is based on market development, alongside greater offer due to expansion of associated mills and attraction of new producers.
The company has as its target the tripling of business by 2018, when 200 million tons of cane should be ground and the company should have 30% of national production of ethanol and sugar.
In the 2008/2009 crop, Copersucar was responsible for 13% of all the sugar and also for 13% of all the ethanol traded in the Center-South of Brazil. In exports from the region, the company had 14% participation in sugar and 23% in ethanol.
In the 2009/2010 crop, the target is to process 79 million tons of cane, with growth of 16% over the previous period. Sales of sugar should total 5.7 million tons, 1.6 million tons turned to the domestic market and 4.1 million tons to export.
Anba