Sugar-cane harvesting in the main growing region in Brazil, the world's biggest sugar producer, may be delayed after above-average rainfall in the first weeks of March, according to ICAP Brasil.

"Rains in the first half of March were almost double the average of the last 10 years," Marcos Mine, head of the sugar and ethanol desk at ICAP Brasil, said by phone from Sao Paulo today. "This has already delayed the start in some mills."

The bulk of Brazil's cane crop is usually harvested between March and December in Center South, which accounts for about 90 percent of the country's output. Rainfall may also hamper sugar production at the beginning of the harvest, leading processors to make ethanol instead, according to Mine.

"It's impossible to produce sugar when the cane is wet, so when crushing starts, millers will have to make ethanol," he said.

A shortage of the biofuel in the Brazilian domestic market may also help to delay sugar production as the government tries to ensure ethanol supplies, Mine said.

The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, known as Unica, urged mills to start crushing as quickly as possible to help avert a domestic shortage of ethanol, Marcos Jank, the industry group's president, told reporters in Brasilia yesterday.

This month's rains caused landslides and destroyed three bridges on the BR 277 federal road that runs to the port of Paranagua, a press officer for toll-road operator Ecovia said by phone March 14.

A press official at Paranagua, Brazil's second-biggest port, said March 14 that while trucks were unable to make deliveries, the port was keeping up with scheduled shipments using stored grains. The official asked to remain anonymous, citing company policy.