Dry Weather Hastens Brazil Sugar Output but Hurts Maturing Crop

Brazil's main center-south cane crop produced 2.33 million metric tons of sugar in the first half of June, up from the 2.03 million metric tons in late May as clear weather helped crushing, the main sugar and ethanol lobby Unica said on Wednesday.

In its biweekly report on the harvest, Unica said, however, that the lack of rain was at the same time hurting the development of the cane that is due to mature later in the year.

"The persistence of the drier climate since the start of harvest ... is severely hurting the development of the plants, intensifying the agricultural losses," Unica's technical director Antonio de Padua Rodrigues said.

(Reporting by Reese Ewing and Fabiola Gomes)