(SAO PAULO, Brazil) — Amid higher oil prices following the Iran war, the Brazilian government says they want to raise the country’s ethanol blend from 30% to 32% in the first half of this year.
According to Reuters, Brazil’s ethanol makers are ready to raise output if the government does hike the legal mix of anhydrous ethanol blended with gasoline this year. Industry experts say that production is heading towards a record. “It’s an excellent moment for this decision, because we are at the start of the harvest … mills are in the early phase of defining their production mix,” Mauricio Muruci, a sugar and ethanol analyst at consultancy Safras & Mercado, told Reuters.
A higher ethanol blend would increase the share of sugarcane processed into biofuel in Brazil. Safras & Mercado estimates the proportion of cane used to make ethanol rather than sugar would rise to 54%, one percentage point above its previous forecast following the minister’s comments, compared with 51% in the previous season, Muruci said. With more cane allocated to ethanol and the continued strong expansion of corn‑based ethanol, total production in Brazil could reach between 44 billion and 44.5 billion liters — a record level and about 15% higher than last season, Safras & Mercado said.
Read more in the story from Reuters here: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/brazil-ethanol-sector-ready-fill-demand-higher-blends-2026-04-10/
