19 November 2008 - Bunge's new sugarcane mill in Monte Verde, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, is in the final stage of construction and is expected to begin operations in May 2009.
Bunge, which acquired a 60% stake in the Monte Verde mill in September, said that the facility will have an initial milling capacity of 1.6 million tons per year, and will be expanded to 4.5 million tons per year by 2012 or 2013.
At an investor conference in New York yesterday, Bunge’s CEO, Alberto Weisser said that the Monte Verde project will be key in strengthening Bunge’s role in the sugar and ethanol processing sectors in Brazil.
He referred to the company’s two other sugar projects in the country: the 2007 majority stake acquisition of a sugarcane mill in Santa Juliana, located in the Mina Gerais state, which is expected to run at full capacity by 2011; as well as the greenfield sugar mill Bunge is developing with Itochu.
The three projects are expected to reach an annual capacity of over 12 million tons of sugarcane in the aggregate, by 2012.
Weisser argued that the company’s Brazilian sugar business is a “complimentary value chain”. He also foresees the compound annual growth rate of the country’s sugarcane milling industry between 2008 and 2016 at 7% on average.