Brazil, Largest Sugar Grower, May Spend $33 Billion on New Mills

By Mike Cohen
Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil, the world’s largest producer, may spend $33 billion on new sugar mills and renovating existing plants by 2012, said Fabio Torquato, the international relations director of the Mercosur trading block in Brazil.
The country has 65 million hectares (160.6 million acres) of land available that may potentially be used to plant sugar cane, Torquato told the World Sugar Summit in Cape Town today. While 80 new sugar production projects are due to be completed by 2012, some of them may be cancelled because of the global economic recession, he said.