Even with successive increases in recent months, the average prices of hydrated and anhydrous ethanol in the 2020/21 harvest were below those recorded in the previous season, in real terms.

A survey by Cepea shows that crop averages decreased due to low prices in the first two months of the season (April and May 2020). It is worth remembering that, at that period, some plants had a need to sell biofuel, while the demand for ethanol was quite low, in view of the beginning of the mobility restrictions period, due to the covid-19 pandemic. From April / 20 to March / 21, the CEPEA / ESALQ Indicator of hydrate was R $ 2.1574 / liter, a real drop of 13% compared to the same period of the 2019/20 season (from April / 19 to March / 20 ) - the monthly averages were updated by the IGP-M of March / 21. In the case of the anhydrous CEPEA / ESALQ Indicator, the average was R $ 2.3729 / liter in 2020/21, down 12.8% compared to the previous harvest.