The increased sorghum production will enable the Brazilian sugarcane-to-ethanol mills to extend their operating season.

Under the agreed terms, the companies will contribute services and resources and share the revenue generated from the ethanol produced from Ceres’ sweet sorghum.

Raízen Agro industrial director Antonio Stuchi said: "During the past seasons we have made significant and measureable improvements in performance and we remain optimistic that sweet sorghum can be used to rapidly scale up feedstock supplies following the current downturn in the sector.

"By working with Ceres, we have early access to the latest innovations in seed products and leading experts in sorghum crop management."

Raízen, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan, develops and scales up sweet sorghum as a means to grow margins and increase supply for its sugar and ethanol facilities.

In addition to sweet sorghum, Ceres also markets high biomass sorghum to mills and other agri-industrial facilities for use in generating electricity, heat and steam in Brazil.

Ceres president and CEO Richard Hamilton said: "The ethanol industry in Brazil has a history of successfully competing against low-priced oil and we believe that sweet sorghum, which has lower production costs than sugarcane, can be further developed and scaled up as an integral part of the industry’s feedstock supply."