BIOSEV BET ON PRODUCTIVITY OF PLANTATIONS OF MINAS GERAIS AND MATO GROSSO

São Paulo-Productivity best in the reeds of Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais should partly offset the losses recorded by the Biosev processing in the region of Ribeirão Preto (SP) 2018/19 harvest, said on Friday the CEO of energy company, Juan José Blanchard. The State of São Paulo in Brazil was particularly affected by the drought in recent months, and the plantations of Ribeirão Preto, the main producer of the country, polo suffered from the lack of rain. Several consulting firms cutting their estimates come grinding to the Centro-Sul as a whole this year because of drought. But the Biosev, controlled by Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), has his other polos producers to mitigate the problems recorded in São Paulo, explained Blanchard in a teleconference with analysts. "Productivity in the States of Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais also is helping to partly offset what we're harvesting in the region of Ribeirão Preto", he said, highlighting, without citing figures, which in Sao Paulo the breakdown of production must be in line with expected by the market. With an installed capacity to process more than 34 million tons of sugar cane per season, the Biosev has power plants also in Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba. According to Blanchard, who took charge of the company in June, dry weather helped the company to proceed with the harvest between April and June, the first quarter of the crop 2018/19. The day before, the Biosev reported a 17.1 percent more grinding in the period. Already in financial terms the results were not as good, with R $506 million net loss amid foreign exchange impacts. The Biosev restructured in March more than R $3 billion in debt and received an injection of $ $1 billion of the LDC in the capital increase.