Mills in Brazil Centre-South region produced 35.63 million tonne sugar during 2016-17 (Apr-Mar), up 14.1% from 31.22 million tonne a year ago. Mills in the region account for over 90% of the country total sugar production. In 2016-17, mills crushed 607.14 million tonne cane, down from 617.71 million tonne a year ago. This reduction in milling was offset by a 1.94% improvement in raw material quality 133.03 kg of total recoverable sugars per tn of sugarcane in the current cycle against 130.50 kg in the previous one. During Mar 17-Apr 1, the last fortnight of the season, mills in the region crushed 7.96 mln tn cane to produce 270,000 tn sugar. In the same period last year, mills crushed 14.09 million tonne cane, and output was 465,000 tonne. The Centre-South region has also produced 25.65 billion litre of ethanol during this season, down from 28.23 bln ltr a year ago. Of the total cane crushed so far, around 46.3% was used for sugar production, while 53.7% was used to make ethanol.