Mato Grosso is the second largest ethanol producer in Brazil, with 5.72 billion liters generated. According to the Bioenergy Industries of Mato Grosso (Bioind-MT) and the Mato-Grossense Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea), this is the largest growth in ethanol production ever recorded in the state.
According to the research, this harvest saw a 32% growth compared to the previous one, which generated 4.34 billion liters of ethanol. For 2024/25, the estimate is that Mato Grosso will produce 6.30 billion liters of biofuel, an increase of 10.03% compared to this harvest. Of this volume, 5.207 billion liters must come from corn and 1.088 billion from sugarcane.
This is the first time that Mato Grosso is in second place in national production, behind only São Paulo. This growth in production was the result of the expansion of the production capacity of the plants, in addition to the better performance of the industries.
Of the total produced in the harvest, 4.54 billion liters came from corn and 1.18 billion liters from sugarcane crushing. Of this volume, 3.73 billion liters were generated in hydrated ethanol (biofuel that goes directly to the pumps), and 1.99 billion liters of anhydrous (a product that is added to gasoline).
Currently, Mato Grosso has 18 ethanol industries that generate, in addition to biofuel: corn oil, provide fertilizers and vegetable protein for animal feed and yeast, issue carbon credits and generate electricity from waste.
Corn and sugar cane
In this harvest, Mato Grosso produced 43.8 million tons of corn, responsible for 38% of the national harvest. During this period, corn crushing was also a record, 10.11 million tons, generating growth of 37.86%. This is the highest percentage of annual growth ever recorded in the state.
The industrial yield index for ethanol production was 449.27 liters per ton of corn. Currently, Mato Grosso accounts for 72% of national corn ethanol production.
Another highlight in this harvest was distillers dried grains (DDG), a co-product of corn ethanol used in animal feed. DDG production was 2.12 million tons, compared to 1.6 million tons in the previous harvest.
As for sugar cane, there was a 10.6% increase in crushing, totaling 17.65 million tons, the same volume as the record harvest in the state recorded in the 2019/20 season. In this harvest, industrial yield in ethanol production reached 100 liters per ton, the highest since the beginning of the historical series.
Of the 2023/24 harvest, 12.08 million were destined for ethanol production and 5.57 million were destined for sugar production. Sugar reached a record of 537.7 thousand tons, a volume 7% higher compared to the previous harvest.
Among the reasons for this movement is the lower supply of sugar on the international market, limited due to the sugarcane harvest failure in Asian countries, such as India and Thailand, which stimulated prices on the world market and demand for the product produced in the Brazil.
