Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Adecoagro's Q3 2021 results conference call. Today with us, we have Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO, and Mr. Charlie Boero Hughes, CFO. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question and answer session. At that time, further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star zero to reach an operator. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Adecoagro's management and on information currently available to the company.
They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Adecoagro and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO. Mr. Bosch, you may begin your conference.
Good morning, and thank you for joining Adecoagro's 2021 Q3 results conference. 2021 marked the 10-year anniversary of Adecoagro's IPO. In the last 10 years, our adjusted EBITDA grew from $100 million to roughly $400 million, and our cash generation became structurally positive. Since the IPO, we expanded our businesses and conducted investments that allow us to vertically integrate our operations, improve efficiencies, and enhance our competitive advantages. We have also became a source of carbon credits and a reference in the sustainable production of food and renewable energy. Adecoagro is now a more mature company with a healthy capital structure and the capacity to commit to a systemic distribution policy. As we mentioned in the past, during 2021, we are distributing cash to our shareholders via our share repurchase program.
So far, we have already repurchased over six million shares, equivalent to more than 5% of the equity of the company. Starting in 2022, we will distribute annually at least 40% of the adjusted free cash flow from operations generated during the previous year. Distribution will consist of a dividend of at least $30 million per year, which will be paid in May and November. At the same time, we will continue to repurchase shares under our program as we see appropriate until reaching the distribution target. On top of our distribution policy, we continue to see attractive growth opportunities that synergize well with our current operations, have potential to make them more efficient and sustainable, and offer very attractive returns. And all this will never compromise our solid debt profile.
Now, in relation to the performance of our businesses, consolidated adjusted EBITDA marked a new record high for the first nine months of the year and an increase of over 50% compared to last year. In our sugar, ethanol, and energy business, crushing volumes during the quarter was only 200,000 tons lower than last year, despite the impact of the frost. This was possible because we accelerated harvesting activities, increased harvested area, and were able to purchase some cane from third parties. As we were expecting, lower production was more than offset by the higher prices that we captured in sugar, ethanol, and electricity. We continue to see constructive price scenario in the following quarters due to the impact in supply and to the early finish of the harvest season for most of the mills.
We are in a great position to continue to benefit from this price scenario as we have been hedging the low end of our commercial policy. We have invested in our on-site storage capacity, which enables us to carry over 155,000 cubic meters of ethanol and 165,000 tons of sugar. We have recently increased our capacity to produce anhydrous ethanol, which traded at $0.24 per lbs in October, marking a 10-year high. We have the necessary flexibility to switch from producing sugar to ethanol. In fact, we are currently producing 100% ethanol to benefit from higher relative prices. We continue to actively participate in the RenovaBio program through the sale of more than $2 million of CBios during the quarter.
As part of our efforts to continue increasing the sustainability of our operations and improve our RenovaBio score. We will soon start testing the use of biomethane in 13 vehicles. We are very excited about the development of this technology and see a great potential for it. Moving on to our rice business, we achieved strong results during the first nine months of the year, including a record high yield of 7.8 tons per hectare on average. This was possible thanks to the investment we made across the business, but especially to the innovative approach of our team, who put a special focus on productivity, grain quality, and efficiency through the value chain. As we improve our product genetics and offer customized products that perform well at the farm and the industry level, we continue to develop new markets and increase our mix of higher value-added products.
We are proud of the work we are doing in this segment, of our team, and of our use of technology to develop a sustainable production system that is generating great results. Going to the crop business, we completed harvesting activities for the 2021 harvest year, totaling 700,000 tons of grains. We achieved good yields, although it was a La Niña year. This was thanks to our geographic and product diversification, which is one of our competitive advantages and allow us to extend the planting and harvesting window. And thanks to that work of our team and the use of technology. Productivity indicators were more than compensated by the high average prices. At the present time, all of our teams are fully focused on the planting activities for the 2021-2022 harvest year.
So far, we are planting crops and rice at an excellent pace under good soil and weather conditions. Now, we are entering into the period where most of the physical yields are defined. In our daily operations, we continue to achieve high productivity indicators and transform raw milk into value-added products demanded both in the domestic and export markets. As every year, Cushman & Wakefield conducted an independent appraisal of our land portfolio and valued it 2.4% above last year. To conclude, I would like to express my gratitude to our shareholders for their continuous support. I also want to thank our operational and management teams for the hard work and the effort they did throughout all these years.
I am convinced that we have the right team and that we are following the right strategy to continue to generate attractive and sustainable margins for all of our shareholders. Now, I will let Charlie walk you through the numbers of the quarter.
Thank you, Mariano. Good morning, everyone. Let's start on page four with a brief analysis on the rains in Mato Grosso do Sul. As seen on the top charts, rains in our cluster during the Q3 of 2021 were lower than during the same period of last year and the 10-year average. However, increased precipitations during October were very favorable for the recovery of sugarcane yields. Before turning to the following slide, I would like to briefly comment on the cold front that hit most of Brazil's key productive area at the beginning of the quarter. As you know, low temperatures at the end of June and July caused severe frost damage on sugarcane plantations in regions including São Paulo and Paraná states, as well as Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais.
This caused a negative impact in yields, which were already affected by the dry weather observed throughout the year in the center south region of Brazil. In light of this, market estimates of Brazil's sugarcane supply were cut in as much as 15% by some analysts. While expectations at the beginning of the year pointed at a crushing volume of 590 million tons of sugarcane, current expectations range between 520 and 510 million tons. The pressure on the supply side translated into higher prices for all three products. This made the price scenario even more constructive than it already was. As we'll see in the following slides, we were in an excellent position to capture this upside because of our strategy to hedge at the low end of our commercial policy.
In fact, for the 2022 and 2023 campaign, we still have over 90% of TRS unhedged. Please jump to page five, where I would like to walk you through our agricultural productivity. During the Q3 of 2021, sugarcane yields marked a 27.2% reduction compared to the same period of last year, reaching 59 tons per hectare. TRS content, in turn, presented a 6.9% reduction and totaled 132 kg per ton. The lower than expected agricultural productivity indicators were fully explained by the adverse weather conditions, as most of the harvested area was cane below optimal growth stage. It is worth mentioning that accelerating harvesting pace is very important to avoid the frost from causing additional damage on the cane.
The combined effect in yields and TRS content resulted in a TRS production per hectare of 7.8 tons during the quarter, resulting in a 32.2% reduction year-over-year. On a nine-month basis, the year-over-year reduction of 11.7% in sugarcane yields and 12.5% in TRS per hectare is fully explained by the Q3 dynamics. Going forward, it is expected that productivity will return to normal levels as sugarcane continues to recover, favored by increased precipitation during October. Now let's continue with slide six, where I would like to discuss our sugarcane crushing strategy. Because we have in place an integrated business, our crushing volume during the Q3 of 2021 was only 200,000 tons lower year-over-year, despite lower than expected agricultural productivity indicators.
This achievement was possible because we harvested 28.2% more area than during the same period of last year and increased the amount of cane purchased from third parties in 15.5%. In addition to this, our team responded quickly and leased third-party harvesters in order to accelerate harvesting activities to minimize the weather impact. By doing so, we achieved a crushing volume of 4.1 million tons during the quarter, only 5.2% lower year-over-year. As of September 30, crushing volume reached 9.7 million tons, 13% higher year-over-year. This increase was explained by the good cane availability, an early start of crushing activities during the Q1 of the year as opposed to last year, and by the favorable weather during the Q2 of 2021.
Let's move ahead to slide seven, where I would like to discuss our production mix. As you can see in the top left chart, during the Q3 of 2021, hydrous and anhydrous ethanol in Mato Grosso do Sul traded at an average price of $19.2 and $21.2 cents per lbs sugar equivalent, representing a 2.8% and a 13.2% premium to sugar respectively. It is worth pointing out that the evolution of sugar prices during the quarter was also very positive. In line with our strategy to maximize production of the product with the highest marginal contribution during the quarter, we diverted 55% of TRS to ethanol to profit from higher relative prices.
To further take advantage of price premiums, 63% of total ethanol production was anhydrous ethanol, compared to 41% during the Q3 of 2020. This increase in anhydrous ethanol production was possible thanks to the recent incorporation of our molecular sieve in Ivinhema, which increased our dehydration capacity by 50%. Total production of both ethanol and sugar was 11.2% and 7.3% lower compared to the Q3 of 2020 respectively. As previously mentioned, this was explained by the lower production of TRS, but it was more than offset by an increase in prices. As Brazil is one of the world's main producers and exporters of sugar, any weather event that might impact supply will result in an increase in prices. Our low hedging volumes enabled us to capture the benefit that this natural hedge offered.
On a year-to-date basis, production mix was in line with the first nine months of 2020, standing at 58% ethanol and 42% sugar. Volumes produced were 14.4% and 13.6% higher respectively, favored by a strong production during the first six months of the year. In 2021, we maximized sugar production during the Q1 to benefit from higher relative prices and switched to ethanol during the second and Q3. The opposite was observed in 2020 when we maximized ethanol during the Q1, then switched to sugar as ethanol prices plummeted in light of the pandemic and went back to maximizing ethanol in the Q3.
This high degree of flexibility constitutes one of our most important competitive advantages since it allows us to make a more efficient use of our fixed assets and profit from higher relative prices. Year-to-date, ethanol accounted for 61.7% of total adjusted EBITDA generation in sugar, ethanol, and energy business, considering other operating income, while sugar accounted for 30.2%. Please turn to slide eight, where I would like to comment on our energy production strategy. As you know, Brazil's energy matrix is heavily reliant on hydroelectric energy. Due to the prolonged period of dry weather in the center-south region of Brazil, the level of water in the reservoirs was low.
As can be seen in the top right chart, this resulted in a hike in spot prices, which increased from BRL 92 per MWh last year to BRL 582 per MWh in the Q3 of 2021. To profit from this situation, we increased our energy production by burning bagasse, both owned as well as purchased from third parties, wood chips purchased from third parties, and sugarcane straw collected from the field. Exported energy during the quarter totaled 263,000 MWh, 4% higher compared to the same period of 2020, while our cogen efficiency ratio was 9.6% higher. Let's please turn to slide nine, where I would like to discuss quarterly sales.
As you can see on the right chart, net ethanol sales during the Q3 of 2021 amounted to $83.4 million, 121.7% higher year-over-year. This was mostly explained by an increase in average selling prices measured both in reals as well as in U.S. dollars, resulting in a 70.8% increase, mostly led by anhydrous ethanol. Despite a lower production of ethanol during the quarter and an aggressive carryover strategy to benefit from higher expected prices, ethanol sales volume presented a 15% increase compared to the Q3 of 2020. This was fully explained by the lockdown measures adopted in 2020 in response to the COVID-19, which negatively affected demand for fuels, resulting in a decrease in sales and a stock build-up.
On a year-to-date basis, ethanol sales were 69.6% higher than during the first nine months of 2020. This was explained by a 49.3% increase in average selling prices and 13.6% increase in selling volumes. A brief comment on CBios. During the quarter, we sold 255.8 thousand CBios under the RenovaBio program at an average price of 46 BRL per CBio, approximately $8.7 per CBio. Year to date, we sold 367.9 thousand CBios at 41.6 BRL per CBio, approximately $7.8 per CBio. In the case of energy, selling volumes during the quarter reached 319,000 MWh, marking a 2.6% year-over-year increase.
Average selling prices were higher, both measured in reals as well in U.S. dollars, standing at $58.9 per megawatt-hour, implying a 64% increase compared to the same period of last year. As mentioned before, this was driven by the low levels of water reservoirs, which reduced the supply of hydroelectric energy. All in all, net sales of energy in the Q3 of 2021 were $18.8 million, 68.3% higher year-over-year. On a nine-month basis, net sales of energy were 37.7% higher year-over-year as a consequence of the increase in selling volume and average selling prices. Net sales of sugar during the Q3 of 2021 reached $46.6 million, 27.2% lower year-over-year.
This decrease was driven by a 50.7% decrease in selling volumes, partially offset by a 52.1% increase in average prices, which reached $0.172 per lbs. There are two points worth highlighting. During the Q3 of 2020, we increased the volume of sugar sold as the market for ethanol was fairly illiquid and prices were low due to the pandemic. And due to our commercial strategy to carry over stocks in order to profit from higher expected prices. Stocks of sugar in the current quarter almost doubled compared to last year. On a nine-month basis, sugar sales reached $143.3 million, led by a 48.7% increase in average selling prices, which fully offset the 2.4% decrease in selling volume.
Finally, to conclude with the sugar, ethanol, and energy business, please turn to slide 10, where I would like to discuss financial performance. Adjusted EBITDA during the Q3 of 2021 was $138.1 million, $51.7 million, or 59.8% higher compared to the same period of last year. The main driver behind EBITDA growth was the $36 million increase in net sales, coupled with a $20 million year-over-year gain in the mark-to-market of our harvested cane, led by an increase in Consecana prices of 67%.
The increase in adjusted EBITDA was partially offset by a $25.2 million increase in cost, mainly explained by the increase in harvested area to make up for the lower productivity of the cane, which resulted in higher salaries, higher use of diesel, and higher maintenance costs, among others, as well as by the higher purchase volume of third-party cane, bagasse and wood chips, among others. Year-to-date adjusted EBITDA stood at $269.8 million, 56.2% or $97.1 million higher than during the same period of last year.
Higher results were explained by 60% increase in net sales, coupled with a $39.7 million gain derived from the mark-to-market of our sugarcane, mostly related to harvested cane. This was partially offset by an increase in cost, combined with a $23.7 million loss in our commodity hedge position and eight point eight million increase in selling expenses in line with the increase in sales. End of year stocks amounted to over $135 million, marking a year-over-year increase of 2.3 x led by our commercial strategy to carry over stocks in order to benefit from higher expected prices. I would now like to move on to the farming business. Please direct your attention to slide 12. As of the end of October 2021, we harvested over 260,000 hectares, successfully completing the 2020 and 2021 harvest season.
This amounts to over one million tons of agricultural products harvested and transported across 10 provinces in Argentina and Uruguay. We are currently engaged in planting activities for the 2021 and 2022 harvest season, so far observing normal weather conditions. We expect to plant 282,880 hectares, 7.9% higher than the previous harvest season. Let's move to page 13, where I would like to walk you through the financial performance of our farming and land transformation businesses. Adjusted EBITDA in the farming and land transformation businesses reached $24.8 million in the Q3 of 2021 and $113.4 million in the first nine months of the year. This marked a year-over-year increase of 19.9% and 32.6% respectively.
Focusing on the farming business, results stood at $23.9 million during the quarter and $107 million on a nine-month basis, marking a year-over-year increase of 30.6% and 55.7% respectively. Adjusted EBITDA in our crop segment was $13.7 million during the quarter, $7.9 million higher compared to the same period of last year. This was explained by an increase in average selling prices, a $127 per ton increase in the case of soybean and $71 per ton in the case of corn, coupled with a year-over-year gain in the mark-to-market of our biological asset on account of an increase in hectares, yield, and prices. This was partially offset by an increase in costs driven by inflation in U.S. dollar terms.
Year to date, adjusted EBITDA amounted to $47.9 million, 89.5% higher compared to the same period of last year. The improved performance was also mostly explained by a year-over-year gain in the mark-to-market of our biological asset on account of an increase in prices. End of period stocks were at 2.3 x higher than last year, amounting to over $50 million, mainly as a consequence of commercial strategy to carry stocks in order to benefit from higher prices. In the case of rice, most of the margin was already captured during the Q1 of the year. In this line, adjusted EBITDA reached $2.8 million during the Q3, marking a year-over-year loss of 54.3%. However, during the nine-month period, adjusted EBITDA stood at $40.7 million, 37.9% higher year-over-year.
The positive financial performance was mostly explained by an increase in yields, which reached a record high of 7.8 tons per hectare, an increase in area and an increase in prices, which led to a year-over-year gain in the value of our biological asset and agricultural produce. These results were possible due to our continuous focus on productivity, enhanced efficiencies, and the consolidation of our team. The dairy business generated an adjusted EBITDA of $7.2 million during the Q3 of 2021 and $19.3 million during the first nine months, an increase of 13.5% and 32.6% compared to the same period of last year, respectively.
In both cases, higher results were explained by an increase in gross sales and achieved efficiencies in our vertically integrated operations, including high productivity at the farm level and the flexibility of our industrial assets. In the case of land transformation, a minor gain was registered in the current year compared to a $16.3 million result in 2020, which reflects the sale of a plot of our Abolengo farm. Let's now turn to page 15, which shows the evolution of Adecoagro's consolidated operational and financial performance. On a year-to-date basis, gross sales reached $777 million and adjusted EBITDA, $368 million, marking a year-over-year increase of 33.9% and 50.4% respectively.
During the quarter, gross sales reached $317 million, while adjusted EBITDA totaled $157 million, marking a 33.2% and 53.7% increase compared to the same period of last year. From an operational point of view, we continue increasing our planted area, both in our farming and sugar, ethanol, and energy business. This, in line with our enhanced efficiencies at the farm and industry level has led to an 8.2% increase in our production of crops and rice, and a 13% increase in crushing volume, as previously mentioned. To conclude, please turn to slide 16 to take a look at our net debt position.
As you may see in the bottom left chart, our net debt as of September 30, 2021, reached $725 million, $19.4 million or 2.6% lower than the previous quarter. This was explained by the combined effect of a 1.6% reduction in gross debt and a 2.5% increase in our cash position, even though marketable inventories in the Q3 of 2021 were $66 million higher compared to the previous quarter. The increase in cash position was a consequence of a greater collections and lower working capital requirements, since in the second semester of the year, planting and harvesting costs have already been incurred, and we start selling and collecting income from most of our products.
On a year-over-year basis, net debt increased by 1.9% compared to the same period of last year. The 1.1% reduction in gross debt was fully offset by an 11.2% decrease in our cash position. This reduction in our cash position was mostly explained by an increase in marketable inventories of $124 million, compared to the same period of last year. We believe that our balance sheet is in a healthy position, not only based on the adequate overall debt levels, but also on the term of our indebtedness, most of which is long-term debt. As of September 30, 2021, our net debt ratio reached 1.56 x.
As can be seen, we continue the downward trend compared to both the previous quarter of 2021 and the same period of last year, marking a reduction of 14.1% and 31.9% respectively. At the same time, our liquidity ratio, which is calculated as cash and equivalents, plus marketable inventories divided by short-term debt, reached 2 x, 8.9% above last quarter's ratio of 1.84 x and 33.8% higher than the same period of last year, which reached 1.49 x. This clearly shows the full capacity of the company to repay short-term debt with cash balance without raising external capital. Thank you very much for your time. We are now open to questions.
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you have a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone at this or any time. If at any point your question is answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. Questions will be taken in the order they are received. We do ask that when you pose your question, that you pick up your handset to provide optimum sound quality. Today's first question comes from Guilherme Palhares with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. I have two, actually. The first one being the sugar and ethanol business, looking at the yields that you guys had this year and looking for the next crop season, what we could expect in terms of recovery of TRS of cane. And the second one is related to the fertilizers at the market prices that we are seeing. If you could explain a bit what would be the impact for your organization and what is the exposure that you have in the farming business to these prices, it would be very important for us. I'll leave it at that. If you could give more details on that front as well. Thank you.
Hi, Guilherme. Good morning. Thank you very much for your question. I'm gonna take the second part of the question, and then I'm gonna ask Renato to get more into details on the sugar and ethanol yields and what can we expect for the future. So regarding our fertilizer position, for all this year, we are pretty well covered. We anticipated our buying of fertilizers, so we are in a very good position in the medium or short term. And for the longer term, of course, there has been an increase overall of fertilizers in general, and that will have an impact in the total cost. That applies to the 15% of the total cost. This 15% includes fertilizer and agricultural products that both are increasing in terms of dollar prices.
So that is what we need to take into account. For next year, that is not this season, so this season that we are planting is already covered. So the for the following season, we will need to adjust the leasing costs, et cetera, et cetera, to try to compensate this increase on the fertilizer cost. That is one part of the question. And the other part is that this also gives us an opportunity to be even more efficient in the transformation of the vinasses and the transformation of the manure of the dairy cows into organic fertilizer. So this transformation of organic fertilizer is being very profitable, and we are increasing, and we have a growth opportunity there to continue to increase these biofertilizers because of this increase in chemical fertilizer.
That makes us also more sustainable, that the sustainability and the increase in the CBios and the generation of carbon credits through the transformation of this manure into a biological fertilizer is also allowing us to capture more benefits through the sales of more CBios or carbon credits. And so, we see all this as an opportunity also. Regarding the first part of your question of the sugar and ethanol yields and what we can expect there, I would like Renato to get more into those details. Renato? I think we don't have Renato in the line, so I'm gonna go through it. And the sugarcane yields, of course, have been affected by the frost as we have explained in our previous calls. This frost affected this quarter yields.
From now on, yields are starting to improve or will start to improve because we are now gonna be harvesting, or today we are harvesting, cane that has been less affected by this frost. And for next year, that was your question, we can expect lower than the average because of the first half of the year, but in the second half of the year, we can expect even better because after the frost, we are receiving, during October, excellent rains, so the sugarcane plantation is now looking pretty well. And so, for the second semester, we can expect even higher than average as we can see it developing today. So in average, for next year, we will expect lower on the first half and higher in the second half. That's basically a quick summary.
No, that's very clear. Just, one additional question, if I may, in terms of the dividend policy that the company disclosed this quarter, which is a milestone for the company, as I understand. If you could just walk us through the rationale of choosing this 40% threshold and the metric looking at the free cash flow and, what we could expect that the impact of that policy in terms of the investments ahead of the company, would like to perform going forward.
Sorry, Guilherme, I'm not sure I understood exactly the question, but with this policy, as we explained at the beginning, we are committing that 40% of the free cash flow generated from operations is what is gonna be distributed to the shareholder. Then the rest continues to be for these growth projects that we are seeing very attractive in the different businesses that we currently have.
Sure. That's very clear, thank you. Mariano.
Our next question today comes from Thiago Duarte with BTG. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Morning, Mariano, Charlie. Yeah, I have two questions on the sugar, ethanol and energy business. The first one is, is similar to the previous one, but, but still focused on this ongoing crop. I think last quarter, after the frost and knowing the impacts of the drought, you mentioned that you were expecting to crush for the full year around the same volumes that you crushed last year. So just wanted to check whether this assumption is still valid after the Q3 or not, and what would be a reasonable cane volume for the year as per your expectations.
The second question is a more specific one regarding you mentioned very briefly in the earnings release the biomethane project and investments that have been. Can you hear me?
Yes, perfectly well.
Okay, sorry. The investments that you're making to develop that project. You mentioned in the release that you're looking to eventually be able to fully replace the diesel that the company currently buys from the market. So juts if you could provide any more color on the size of the CapEx, the volumes, the biomethane production capacity that you expect to be able to have in the future. And any color on these fronts would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Good morning, Thiago. Thank you for your question. Very interesting. On the second, on your second question on the biomethane project that we are very keen on that project and we are very enthusiastic of a technology that we've been developing now for the last seven or eight years. It is advancing every year, a little bit in the development of this project, and now we have these biodigesters that we take the methane from the vinasse, and we are currently generating electricity through that biomethane. Now we are making an investment where we are transforming that biomethane into a or concentrating it to put it into the vehicles. We have already transformed 13 vehicles, and so this is our first step.
We expect that during 2022, we are gonna be using biomethane for these 13 vehicles. This is still under a testing way. We are very enthusiastic, but if we analyze the potential of the total vinasse that we are having and that we could be transforming into the same thing that we are testing today, and that we are having an excellent performance, we could be able to replace almost 100% of all our diesel. That is conceptually what the potential of this technology has. On top of this, we have an agreement with the guy with whom we've been developing this, that we could be even selling the technology for third parties.
So that is the enthusiasm we are having, but it's still within a very developing technology, and that of course we are very keen, but we are not projecting nothing specific as of today. Is it very clear, Tiago?
Yeah, that's clear. Can you size up the project for us in terms of CapEx, just so we understand the amount of investment that you expect to be deploying there? That would be nice. I got the rest.
Yes, we still don't know the amount of the CapEx. That's why we are talking about the, the possibilities. Of course, that the CapEx will have to be paid in a very short period of time, as we've been seeing now on all these CapExes that are within our existing businesses have very attractive returns, very short period of payback. So that would be the analysis once we have or we are pretty sure about the technology. So it will be communicated and very clearly communicated if it's that situation. Then.
Thank you.
Going to the other part of your question, Thiago, regarding the total crushing of this year. In our last quarter, we mentioned that it was gonna be some way below last year because of the impact of the frost. Now that we were able to accelerate the harvest and the quarter was excellent in terms of all the actions that we're taking to accelerate the harvest and to harvest all this frosted cane, and that they performed even better than what we were projecting, because we were able to hire some additional sugarcane harvesters and some, we accelerated what's gonna be bought at the end of the year or at the end of the year. We anticipated all those movements that were pretty well done.
We can see that we are gonna be pretty near what we harvested last year. It's probably gonna be 1% or 2% below last year. We are currently harvesting. We will end up harvesting by December. We are now harvesting with 100% ethanol. The difference between ethanol and sugar price is way in favor of ethanol, and as Charlie was explaining in the beginning, within the ethanol, the hydrous ethanol is performing very, very good prices. So today, we are doing 100% of ethanol in our current harvest.
That's clear. Thank you, Mariano.
Thank you, Thiago, for your question.
Our next question today comes from Christian Audi with Santander. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hi, Mariano and Charlie. First of all, congratulations on the great results. I would like to ask a question first on capital allocation. Mariano, can you, as we go through the different elements, on the leverage front, as you showed very clearly in your presentation, your very low net debt to EBITDA. What is the target that you plan to maintain that you're comfortable with going to next year? On the second use of cash, in terms of CapEx, or can you just detail a bit more your expectations for CapEx for major products into next year? You already touched on this test element of biogas. Are you looking at any other products such as E2G or anything else that could result into higher CapEx than expected?
And then in terms of dividends versus share buybacks, congratulations on establishing a dividend policy. That's something that I think the market was looking for, and I know you were working very hard on it, so congratulations on getting it done. How do you think about the dividend versus share buyback decision? Is it purely a taxation where you will pay the dividends and then what's left over you use for share buybacks? And then the, the second set of questions was more related to pricing. You already touched on your expectation for continually good ethanol and sugar pricing. Can you just elaborate a bit on that, particularly as it relates to sugar and how you're seeing the global deficit or surplus into next year, please? Thank you.
Hi, Christian. Thank you for your question. Regarding the first part of your question, similar to what I was explaining, when we started the call, we feel that today we are in a very good position to implement this distribution policy. And our policy refers to at least 40% of the adjusted free cash flow from operations that have been generating the previous year. Here I would like to point out, for example, this year, 2021, where we acquired six million shares, that is over $50 million. And if we take a look at the net cash from operations generated in 2020, that was around $100 million.
In this particular year, 2021, because of the projects that we performed and because of our solid debt position, and because we are below 2x EBITDA, and we feel very comfortable in that area that's always been and during the whole year below the 2x EBITDA, we were able to use somewhere more than 50% of the net cash from operations for the buyback, as in the previous year. That's why within our distribution policy, we are assuming and understanding our capital allocation thinking. And the same way that we've been explaining in the last three, four, five, six calls, always understanding this as a capital allocation system.
So going Y at least $30 million of dividends and the rest to complement through buyback, it includes many things, including these taxes issues that can affect some of our investors or not, but this can, of course, vary from time to time. Finally, the last comment regarding the CapEx and the opportunities that we are seeing within these growth opportunities, I would say that all of them that we are looking at are within the four business lines that we currently have. And there is where we are seeing many different small projects like the biomass plant that we just discussed, but that is probably something that we won't expect a huge CapEx during 2022. But we can see some small CapExes on the vinasse concentration.
With these prices of fertilizer, increasing the vinasse concentration and applying more organic fertilizer is very, very profitable. On top of that makes us more sustainable, that generates more value. So the payback of these type of investments are less than two years, and the returns, of course, are very, very high. Same thing in different places of the sugar and ethanol chain. You will find many small investment there, and all of them will go through this criteria that I'm just explaining. When we look at the Argentina and Uruguay part of the company, we see very attractive things in the rice business. Rice is doing very well.
The performance of being able to develop a genetic of a rice and that specific variety being sold to a specific client, and we are maximizing prices through that way, is putting us in a very attractive position. And so again, in that sector, we also see some specific opportunities. But all of the opportunities that we are looking today are within the existing businesses and where we feel very, very comfortable for returns that we can obtain in that specific case. Most of them are solving some bottlenecks in the whole chain of our investments that we are talking about.
Great. And the... Can you give us a sense as you analyze these opportunities, what levels of returns, IRRs you, you use as a threshold to, in order to pursue them, please?
Yes, of course. The threshold for the different business and how sustainability impacts, so there are many specific things. But in general, I would say that all, most of the things that we are looking at are all of them above 20%-25% IRRs. There are some of them with 50% IRRs. The IRRs that we are using are very attractive for us.
Great. Very helpful. And if you could just comment on your outlook for sugar and ethanol prices, please.
Yes, sure. As we've been anticipating, we are in a very constructive mood in terms of sugar and ethanol prices with the petroleum at $80 and the relations between importing and exporting in Brazil. The hydrous and anhydrous ethanol has still a very good scenario, especially when we talk on the anhydrous scenario. That's why you saw that at the end of this quarter, we were full of inventory. And same thing for the sugar prices. We were anticipating this frost effect that we were talking in our previous call, that we in the market talking too much about this previous effect. And I think it was clear that the effect was there and the increase in prices came.
And for the next year until the second half of the next year, we also see the scenario very constructive in both sugar and ethanol prices.
Great. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, our next question comes from-
Renato, do you want to add something to this, sugar and ethanol, scenario?
Yes. Can you hear me or not?
Yes, perfectly well.
Yeah. Just to add that we don't think that the Brazilian crop will have an important recovery next year because of the reduction of the 18-month planting because of the dry weather that impacted that type of planting. Also the frost and the fires that we were mentioning before will impact the first half of next year in Brazil, the, the, the supply of TRS for the first half of the year. And also probably there is going to be a reduction in the sugarcane area of about 3% next year. So the Brazilian crop is not going to recover a lot. There is some recovery in some countries like India and Thailand.
But in a lower proportion than what Brazil is supposed to reduce. So we think that the deficit in the world is around three million tons of sugar. And we think that the scenario for next year is going to be because the ethanol scenario for next year is going to be very good, as we were discussing here. If the oil prices remain at the current levels and the Otto cycle is increasing, we think that there's going to be, I would say, a healthy fight from sugar and ethanol for the TRS of the cane. So probably the mix can be impacted and this deficit can be even higher.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, our next question comes from Lucas Ferreira with JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Hello, Lucas, your line is open.
Yes, so good morning, everybody. Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. Congrats on the distribution policy. I just wanted to make a follow-up question on this, Mariano and Charlie. I think the only maybe missing link on the policy is exactly like, what's the limit, what's your leverage limit, you expect? So we have not only some visibility on the minimum payments, but what could be like a potential payment, given your CapEx plan, expansion CapEx plan, and what's the limit of leverage you wanna maintain? Since your leverage is quite low, apparently there is no major CapEx in the pipeline.
Can you share what's the leverage, maybe net debt to EBITDA limit you want to keep, so we have also a visibility on what could be the actual payment to shareholders? That's the first question. The second question maybe to Renato. Renato, just, I'm seeing you're carrying a lot of inventories for the coming quarter, especially sugar. If you wanna talk about your commercialization strategy for the coming quarter. Do you see the market short of ethanol? Do you see companies importing ethanol in the Q1? How do you see the inventory balance there? And could you just explain me why carry so much sugar at inventories for the coming quarters? Yeah, that's it. Thanks all for the opportunity. Thanks.
Hi, Lucas. Thank you for your question. Regarding the distribution policy, I think that's pretty much in line with what we've been saying. This area of below two times EBITDA debt leverage and is an area where we feel very comfortable. We think that we still are in a company that is generating very good results and sustainable cash. But we want to maintain our levels of debt very in a conservative way. We are in Latin America. We all know Latin America. So we want to maintain ourselves in a safe area in terms of the amount of net debt that we would like to have. So most of what we've been saying today regarding our distribution policy has already been said.
And then this 40% of the net cash from operations is a minimum to which we are committing ourselves. We don't want to have excess of cash in the company, nothing like that. You can see what we've done during this current year. And so I think we will be continuous in the same lines of how we've been managing the company in all these years. So that's regarding the distribution policy. Regarding your questions on the inventories, I would like to have Renato answer precisely.
Hi, Lucas. We also remain very optimistic about the short term. I think that the Brazilian crop this year is going to be something close to 520 million tons, much below than everybody was expecting. So the supply of TRS is much lower than previously thought. The oil prices and the Otto cycle is giving support for price of TRS. That's why ethanol prices are very high and helping sugar as well. So that's the reason that we carried our stocks for the Q4. In the sugar, probably we're going to be selling all the sugar in this Q4.
Today, we have 85% of our current sugar production hedged at $0.16 per lbs, so we still have to price 75,000 tons approximately. In the ethanol, we have carried the stocks to the last quarter. And now we are starting to sell ethanol at very high prices. Actually, we are selling ethanol right now in Mato Grosso do Sul at the equivalent of the high of $0.22 per lbs, and then the high was $0.24 per lbs, that we think is very attractive. And so probably we're going to keep selling something now and something in the Q1 of next year, that probably the price will remain very attractive.
Perfect. Thank you very much, all.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Bosch for closing remarks.
Before finishing the call, I wanted to thank you all for joining the conference. The market outlook of the products that we produce is looking promising, and we are in a unique position to continue to take advantage of such favorable scenario. We are confident that we will continue delivering strong financial results, that we will continue to distribute to our shareholders, now in a more structural way. Lastly, I would like to reiterate my gratitude to all our operating teams that are doing an outstanding job, and to our shareholders for their continued support.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for-