Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for wa iting. At this tim e, we would like to welcome everyone to Adecoagro's second quarter 2020 results conference call. Today with us, we have Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO, Mr. Charlie Boero Hughes, CFO, and Mr. Juan Ignacio Galleano, Investor Relations Manager. 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 section. At that time, further instruction will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star zero to reach the 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 second quarter results conference. As we all know, this quarter was marked by the spread of COVID-19 and the global economic slowdown. In such difficult times, our main concern was to continue running all our operations while ensuring the safety of our people by imposing strict protocols to provide a hygienic and secure working environment. After all the measures taken, we were able to continue operating all our businesses on a regular basis in spite of the pandemic. We were in a solid position to cope with this challenging macroeconomic context, thanks to having a diversified product portfolio, the quality of our assets, the flexibility to adapt to changing scenarios, and our constant focus on being low-cost producers. All this has allowed us to maintain profitability even under current circumstances.
It has not been easy, but all the hard work put in by our teams in the field every day has paid off. In our sugar, ethanol, and energy business, the impact of the disease led to a significant drop in the demand and prices of ethanol and energy, presenting a very challenging scenario for the industry. We rapidly reassessed our strategy to adapt to the new context, starting by switching our product mix towards maximizing sugar, which traded at a premium to the ethanol. Indeed, we diverted 54% of the TRS to sugar production, compared with 25% during the second quarter of 2019. In addition to this, we reduced our crushing pace, sized down our operations in tandem with a lower volume, implemented cost reduction initiatives, and postponed uncommitted expenses.
Our rapid response, especially under such a sudden change in market conditions, allowed us to continue selling our products with the highest marginal contribution and make a more efficient use of our fixed assets. In addition, this paced reduction has improved the conditions of our sugarcane plantations to regrow during the second semester of the year. To give you a hint, we resumed our milling pace and reached record high milling crushing capacity in July. In our farming and land transformation business, in particular in Argentina, the mandatory lockdown presented many challenges from a logistical and operational point of view. However, we were able to efficiently complete harvesting activities for our rice and most of our crops and transport our production across 10 different provinces.
This was only possible thanks to the commitment of our people, many of whom were put in quarantine in order to guarantee their safety and that of their families while they were performing their tasks. I would also like to point out the fluid communication we maintained and the good work we did alongside governors, mayors, and public entities to successfully bring our products to the consumers in every corner of the country, as well as in export markets in the middle of the pandemic. Another great accomplishment we achieved during the quarter was the sale of a farm in Argentina, which provided us additional liquidity. Our financial strategy of strengthening our cash position was another pillar to successfully sell throughout the pandemic.
As an example, we entered into an eight-year loan of $100 million with the IFC, which together with the results of the company, puts us on a very liquid position. To conclude, I would like to express how proud I am of the work that we, as a company, have been doing to overcome the effects of the pandemic. This work did not start a couple of months ago, but years. I'm very grateful to every single member of Adecoagro for their ongoing commitment to the company, for their willingness to come to work every day, and for their continuous confidence and support. I know that we still have challenges ahead of us. I am convinced that we have the right people and that we are following the right strategy to generate good returns and value for our existing shareholders.
Now more than ever, we need to remain focused on being low-cost producers, enhancing our efficiencies, and taking care of our people. Now Charlie can walk you through the numbers of the quarter.
Thank you, Mariano. Good morn ing, everyone. Please turn to page four, where I would first like to take a moment to comment on how the dynamics of the Brazilian sugar, ethanol, and energy business have been impacted during the second quarter of 2020, as it will be instrumental to understand the decisions we've made throughout the quarter. During this period, Brazilian ethanol business experienced a decrease in prices and demand, mainly explained by the fall in international oil prices, as can be seen in the top left chart, caused by the oversupply of oil generated by the geopolitical conflict between Russia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This translated into a decrease in the price of ethanol due to the correlation they maintain, as can be seen in the top right chart, and by the reduction of people's circulation in Brazil as a protective measure in response to the COVID-19, which led to a natural decline in the demand for fuels and biofuels such as ethanol, as can be seen in the bottom left chart. The impact of these factors caused the industry to experience a challenging second quarter of the year. April was defined by uncertainty regarding the extent of COVID-19 impact. Indeed, estimates pointed to a 50% year-over-year decrease in demand for ethanol. Actual figures, although less negative, still painted a challenging scenario. On a year-over-year comparison, ethanol demand in Brazil declined 28.6%. Ethanol prices experienced a 25% decrease, and international oil prices experienced a sharp decline as well.
In addition, ethanol stock levels were high due to carryover from 2019. Mills across Brazil switched their mix to maximize sugar, which presented higher relative prices, thus limiting the supply of ethanol. During May, international gasoline prices experienced a recovery, and there was a 21.8% month-over-month increase in demand for ethanol in Brazil due to a less restrictive lockdown than originally thought, although year-over-year demand was 27.9% lower. By June, there were signs of recovery. For instance, the year-over-year drop in ethanol demand stood at only 10.5%. Ethanol prices denominated in Brazilian currency were 1.6% higher year-over-year on the account of a favorable FX rate, higher gasoline prices, and a lower supply due to mills diverting their production to su gar, which price in Brazilian currency was at historical high levels.
During July, ethanol fundamentals pointed to a recovery, a s seen in an 11% month-over-month increase in demand and only a 9% year-over-year decrease, according to UNICA's latest report. Towards year-end, analysts estimate a tight supply and dem and scenario for ethanol, pointing to a pric e recovery. This is so because the decrease in demand is expected to amount to 4.9 million cubic meters, while the decrease in supply, caused by the generalized shift towards sugar production, is expected to stand at 5.5 million cubic meters. As a side note, I would like to briefly mention that in June 2020, we officially became the first company to commercialize carbon credits under the RenovaBio program, marking a milestone in Brazil's biofuel policy. We are proud of this achievement, which shows our commitment to sustainable operations, and we are confident in the positive impact that RenovaBio will have in the industry.
Now let's move to page five with a brief analysis on the rains in Mato Grosso do Sul. As seen on the top charts, rains in our cluster in Mato Grosso do Sul during the second quarter of 2020 were 12.5% below the 10-year average, but double compared to the second quarter of 2019, which registered very dry weather. The distribution of rainfalls, however, was not even throughout the quarter, with rains mostly concentrated in the month of May, improving the outlook for the following quarters. Let's continue with slide six, where I would like to discuss our sugarcane crushing. As mentioned above, we have been following closely the evolution of factors impacting Brazilian sugar, ethanol, and energy business and rapidly reassessing our strategy to adjust to the changing scenario.
This is why at the beginning of the quarter, we decided to slow down our crushing pace and reduce our level of operations in tandem with the lower volume. In addition, we implemented a cost reduction plan, which included, among others, the temporary suspension of employees under Provisional Measure 936/20, thus allowing us to maintain the workforce sized to our operational needs. However, in light of the signs of partially recovery in June, unfavored by the dry weather registered in the cluster region, we began the process of revamping our operations and accelerating our crushing pace again. On a quarterly basis, we crushed 2.9 million tons, 28% or 1.1 million tons lower compared to the same period of last year.
Our strategy to slow down crushing was evidenced in a 10.1% year-over-year decrease in effective milling days and a 19.9% decrease in milling per day, as can be seen in the top left chart. On a six-month basis, a total of 4.2 million tons of sugarcane were crushed, 21.6% or 1.2 million tons lower than the first six months of 2019, fully explained by the second quarter's dynamic. We expect to recover this lower crushing volume during the second semester. Indeed, during July, we reached a record high of 1.7 million tons of sugarcane crushed, which on a year-to-date basis reduces the gap versus last year to only 700,000 tons. This improvement in our operations, coupled with a positive outlook in terms of productivity, will allow us to take advantage of the recov ery in ethanol's fundamentals.
Please jump to page seven, where I would like to walk you through our agricultural productivity. Sugarcane yields during the second quarter reached 81 tons per hectare, 1.5% lower than the second quarter of 2019. In terms of sugar content, TRS during the quarter reached 126 kg / ton, in line with the same period of last year. The combination of these two effects resulted in TRS production per hectare of 10.3 tons, 2.2% lower year-over-year. Year-to-date, yields reached 75 tons per hectare and TRS content 117 kilograms per ton, 11.4% and 4% lower year-over-year respectively. This is explained by the fact that during the first quarter of the year, to profit from very attractive ethanol prices and in order to secure cane availability for 2020, we maximized the harvest of hectares with low productive potential.
This strategy allowed the sugarcane with the highest potential to continue growing and recover from the impact of the 2019 adverse weather conditions, resulting in a negative impact in both yield and TRS content, which resulted in lower TRS production per hectare. Let's move ahead to slide eight, where I would like to discuss our production mix. As you can see in the top left chart, during the second quarter of 2020, ethanol prices experienced a sharp decline, and hydrous and anhydrous ethanol in Mato Grosso do Sul traded at an average price of $0.103 and $0.095 per pound sugar equivalent, marking a 4.7% and 11.7% discount to sugar respectively. In this context, all our efforts were focused on maximizing sugar, the product with the highest marginal contribution to which we diverted 54% of the TRS.
During the first semester of 2020, as can be seen on the top right chart, we diverted 41% of the TRS production to sugar compared with 20% during 2019. I would like to insist that this high degree of flexibility constitutes one of our most important competitive advantages, since it allow us to make a more efficient use of our fixed assets and sell the product with the highest marginal contribution. As a result of this strategy, during the first semester of the year, sugar accounted for 36.6% of total EBITDA generation in the sugar, ethanol, and energy business, considering other operating income, while ethanol accounted for 35%. Let's please turn to slide nine, where I would like to discuss quarterly sales. As you can see on the top left chart, during the second quarter of 2020, ethanol sales volumes decreased by 52.3% year-over-year.
This is explained by the lockdown measures adopted by some states in Brazil, which negatively affected demand for fuel. Indeed, hydrous ethanol sales were the most impacted, dropping by 67.3% compared to the second quarter of 2019, as liquidity for the product remained limited and there was no clear market price reference. Anhydrous ethanol sales were at 29.8% lower compared to the same period of last year, driven by lower gasoline consumption. Average selling prices for ethanol were lower, both measured in BRL as well as USD, standing at $0.103 per pound, representing a 32.8% year-over-year reduction and marking a significant discount to sugar. All in all, net ethanol sales during the quarter amounted to $23.2 million, 70% lower year-over-year.
In the case of energy, selling volumes reached 259,000 MWh, marking a 17.9% decrease year-over-year, explained by our commercial strategy to postpone energy sales in the spot market in light of the low prices observed during the quarter. Average selling prices were lower, both measured in BRL as well as US dollars, standing at $35 per MWh, marking a 28.6% decrease compared to the same period of last year. Overall, net sales were 41.9% lower compared to second quarter of 2019, reaching $9.1 million. Sugar sales volumes during the quarter reached 134,000 tons, 48.6% higher year-over-year on the account of the maximization of sugar production. This was partially offset by average net selling prices measured in US dollars, which dropped by 11.4% to $0.109 per pound, although prices in BRL were at its historical maximums, explained by Brazilian producers continued maximizing sugar.
As a result, net sugar sales reached $31.9 million during the quarter, a 20% increase year-over-year. 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 second quarter of 2020 was $45.4 million, 44.4% lower compared to the same period of last year. This was mostly explained by lower net sales, partially offset by cost reduction following the depreciation of the Brazilian real, lower selling expenses as we renegotiated sugar freight costs and paid less PIS/COFINS tax in line with the lower ethanol sales, and lower general and administrative expenses, both on the account of currency depreciation as well as genuine savings as part of our cost reduction initiatives. I would now like to move on to the farming business. Please direct your attention to slide 12.
As of the date of this report, 92.7% of our total planted area was successfully harvested and presented good yields. The remaining hectares are expected to be harvested by early August. 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 during the first semester of 2020 was $64.8 million, 52.9% or $22.4 million higher year-over-year. This increase is fully explained by the dynamics of the second quarter, which generated an adjusted EBITDA of $40.2 million, 4x higher year-over-year. In our land transformation segment, during the second quarter of 2020, we generated a gain of $10.1 million from the sale of 811 hectares of a farm in Argentina, representing our first farm sale in Argentina in five years.
On a year-to-date basis, this gain marks a 7.6% increase compared with the $9.4 million results registered during 2019 from the sale of Valeira Farm in Brazil. Adjusted EBITDA in our farming business amounted to $54.7 million during the first semester of 2020 and $30.1 million during the second quarter, three times higher year-over-year. The impact of COVID-19 generating an increase in the demand for rice and milk, which we were able to capitalize. During the second quarter of 2020, the crops business generating an adjusted EBITDA of $17 million, $14 million higher compared to the same period of last year. This increase is mainly explained by higher average prices driven by a greater participation of higher value crops, such as peanut and sunflower.
A year-over-year increase in harvested area, in particular in the case of corn, which increased by 22,000 hectares, generating a $4 million gain in changes in fair value. An increase in the mark-to-market of our commodity hedge position, and cost dilution following the depreciation of the Argentine peso. The rice business generating an adjusted EBITDA of $8.3 million during the second quarter of the year, $5.2 million higher year-over-year. This was driven by an increase in sales generated by a higher demand, both in the domestic and export market, driven by countries rebuilding their stocks and increasing consumption, coupled with higher average prices as export prices increased, and we pushed the sale of higher margin products in the domestic market. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was also due to an increase in the mark-to-market of our biological assets and lower costs in dollar terms.
The dairy business generating an adjusted EBITDA of $5 million during the second quarter of the year, mainly driven by higher selling volumes on the account of an increased demand in the domestic market, and achieved efficiencies in our vertically integrated operations, including high productivity at the farm level and the flexibility of our industrial assets, which allowed us to benefit from the spike in demand. Let's now turn to page 15, which shows the evolution of Adecoagro's consolidated operational and financial performance. Net sales during the second quarter of 2020 reached $181 million, 13.7% lower year-over-year. This is fully explained by the performance of the sugar, ethanol, and energy business, which received the greatest impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which translated into lower prices of sugar, ethanol, and energy measured in US dollars, and lower selling volumes of ethanol and energy.
Adjusted EBITDA totaled $81.2 million, marking a 6.6% decrease compared to the same period of last year. On an year-to-date basis, net sales reached $332 million, and adjusted EBITDA, $142 million, 8.5% and 2.1% lower year-over-year. Please turn to slide 16 to take a look at our debt amortization schedule. I would like to highlight that it was not only from an operational and financial point of view that we adapted our strategy in response to the pandemic. We also worked on an integral risk management program to improve our liquidity position in light of such an uncertain scenario. As you know, we started 2020 with a cash position of $219 million, and throughout the year, we reassessed our cost structure, put on hold some uncommitted capital expenditures, and raised credit lines to strengthen our cash position and meet front to our financial obligations and working capital needs.
Indeed, during the second quarter, we increased our short-term debt position by 23% quarter-over-quarter by raising short-term working capital lines. It's worth mentioning that much of this debt was raised as a precautionary measure due to the uncertainty in the macroeconomic scenario, and that due to the seasonality of our business, our sales haven't been collected yet. As can be seen in the bottom graph, our pro forma debt amortization schedule improved considerably compared with March 31st of 2020. This is mostly on the account of the $100 million loan agreement we entered with IFC, this time for our Argentine operations, which almost doubled the average life of our debt to six years. We are proud of this major achievement, especially given the current global economic situation, as it is a reflection of our hard work, solid reputation, and the stable outlook of our business.
Having received this green loan also validates our strong commitment to environmental sustainability. To conclude, please turn to slide 17 to take a look at our net debt position. As you may see in the bottom left chart, our net debt as of June 30th of 2020 reached $742 million, $30.2 million, or 4.2% higher than the previous quarter, driven by a $31 million increase in gross debt, which amounted to $938 million, 3.3% higher than the previous quarter, and cash and equivalents flat at $236 million. On a year-over-year basis, net debt was 4.3% lower compared to the second quarter of 2019 on the account of higher cash and equivalents, mostly driven by a positive free cash flow during the last 12 months, which fully offset the higher gross debt.
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, with approximately 75% having a long-term tenor. Our net debt ratio reached 2.45 x, 6.2% higher than during the first quarter of 2020, but 17.4% lower year-over-year. At the same time, our liquidity ratio shows the full capacity of the company to replace certain debt with cash balance without raising external capital. As of June 2020, the ratio, which is calculated as cash and equivalents, plus marketable inventories divided by short-term debt, reached 1.22 x. This number is significantly higher once we included the IFC loan. Thank you very much for your time. We are now open to questions.
Thank you . The floor is now open to questions. If you have any questions, please press star one on your touchtone phone at this time 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 hands to provide optimum sound quality. Please hold while we pull for questions. The first question comes from Pedro Soares from BTG Pactual. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Good morning, Mariano, Charlie, Juan. I have two questions here on the side. The first one on sugar and ethanol. Could you provide a bit more color on your sugar hedging strategy going forward? We saw hedg es for the current crop ramping up this quarter, right? It was still a little bit below than what we imagined it would be, so it would be nice to hear how it has been evolving already in July, August. Also, and maybe even more important, it will be interesting to hear about hedges for the next crop with the 2021, 2022 harvest as well. We've been seeing a lot of discussions at the moment how Brazilian millers have been accelerating hedges for the next year as well. The thing is that Adecoagro hasn't started yet.
Should we take from that you guys are confident that there is still room for sugar prices to go much beyond where we are today or current sugar price levels? Any color would be great there. The second one, on your capital allocation. CapEx is obviously down year-to-date, probably due to all the initiatives taken, as you guys said, by the company to address the pandemic and its impacts. Also there is a part of this reduction which is probably related to the fact you guys were already entering the final phase of your five-year expansion plan, right? How much of this reduction should we assume as a recurring basis? It would be nice to have a sense on what should be the cruising speed for CapEx for the next quarters for the group as a whole. That's it. Thank you, guys.
Okay. Thank you, Pedro, for your questions. I'm going to answer first the second part of your question. Then I will pass to Renato to answer your first question. Regarding this capital allocation and the less CapEx that you are seeing, that's part of our structural plan as we've been talking since three, four years ago of our five-year plan. 2020 was the year where we were finishing our five-year plan. Most of the growth investments that we did in this five-year plan is finishing in 2020. This is structural regarding our focus and what we've been doing and what we are focusing today. That's something that we should continue to see. To your first question regarding sugar and ethanol and the hedges, I'm going to ask Renato to give you more color on this, please.
Hi, Pedro. We are positive for sugar prices. This is because there are some countries that are important suppliers of sugar that are facing some problems. We have dry weather in Thailand. We have the yellows virus in European Union. We have a drought in Brazil that can be partly compensated by the high TRS, but not fully compensated. If you consider that the demand for ethanol will recover next year, this is going to reduce part of the 10 million tons of sugar that Brazil had this year. We have been progressively increasing our hedging according to the opportunities that we have, as we had in the two last weeks. Far, we have currently hedged 80% of the 2020 season at $0.123 per pound, and 16% of the 2021 crop at $0.127 per pound.
Next question comes from Lucas Ferreira from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Gentlemen, good morning. My first question on the sugar and ethanol. Your strategy of doing sort of a lower crushing in the first quarter of the season, I think was very different from what we saw in general for the Central South, which actually had a very strong start of the season. Wondering what was the strategy there, and I suppose that obviously the crushing is accelerating a lot, so wondering if that changes anything for the full year, if you can comment on this. The second question was about the land sale in Argentina. If you can quickly discuss with us the valuation of this land relative to the typical assessment and the appraisal you guys do every year. If you still expect to sell more land this year, how is the liquidity of the market?
Do you think that was kind of just a one-off thing, or do you feel that the market is improving and that could open opportunities for you to do more land sale in the next few quarters? Thank you.
Thank you, Lucas, for your question. Renato will give you more color, or will give you the color on your first question and why we took that strategy. Renato, can you go in deep there, and then I will take the land sales again.
Okay. Thank you, Lucas. As a consequence of last year's dry weather, we have reduced the crushing pace in the second quarter and considered the impact of the COVID-19 in ethanol demand and price. We thought it was an appropriate time to do it, giving more time to the sugarcane development and to reduce our harvesting costs, adopting the MP 936. We think it was a good decision as ethanol price and sugarcane yields improved, and we reversed those measures, reaching an all-time monthly crushing and sugar production record in July, as was already mentioned. The sugarcane yield has also recovered to levels much higher than the same period of last year. I think this strategy is different from most of other mills in Brazil because Mato Grosso do Sul has its own weather dynamics. This is the reason we have the continuous harvest model.
We have not been affected by the drought that's currently occurring in other regions right now. We had a dry weather in Mato Grosso do Sul last year, which also affected the first semester sugarcane yields. However, with the normal rains we have this year, we will have a better second semester with certainly better yields in the same period of last year. Keeping from last year, we will have a slow first semester and an intense second semester in terms of crushing, as we have already seen in July.
Thank you, Renato. Lucas, also regarding your question of the land sale, as we mentioned, the land sale has been at a price that is 23% above the custom valuation. That is the independent valuation that is being done every year. The more relevant thing is that we are seeing that the market has become much more active. We are receiving visits to our farms from different interested parties. We believe that this trend will continue during the next semester. We will continue seeking for executing more sales.
Again, if you have a question, please press star and then one. The next question comes from Fernanda Cunha from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one I have is in regards to your strategy to accelerate the crushing rates in the second half. I'm just wondering here, trying to do some back of the envelope math, but what level of ethanol are you expecting to reach in the second half in order for your strategy to be successful? Secondly, do you see the fact that a lot of the Central South mills might end the crop year earlier? Do you see any upside risk to the ethanol price because of that? Sorry, the second question is in regards to the land sale. You only sold a very small part of the farm, right? Is this an area which you were not using, or are you going to have to do any kind of leases in other regions or even do an asset leaseback?
In that area that you sold. I'm just wondering here the rationale to sell this land right now, this small part of the land right now. The third one, if I may, is in regards to capital allocation. It seems, given the current scenario, that this year it will still be a difficult year for you to pay dividends. Do you have any views of when we could starting to see shareholder returns as a dividend payout? When could we expect that to happen? Thank you.
Okay. I will start answering your last question, then we'll go indeed for the first to the other two questions. Regarding your last question of the capital allocation and when are we going to think about this, as we've been explaining in our last years, I would say today, that we are focusing on return capital to shareholders. That's how we've been approaching this five-year plan. That 2020, this year that we are going through, was going to be the year where we start to see the free cash flow neutral, in 2021, we became really positive. We've been always talking about 2021 as a year where we become free cash flow positive. Today, with this scenario of the pandemic and with this scenario that we are sailing pretty well, as Charlie explained in detail, we are focusing on today and the liquidity of today.
That is today's focus. Of course, you can see our projections, and 2021 should be a very good year. In that moment, we should start discussing deeper how is it that we are going to return capital to our shareholders. That is our view today on how are we approaching this. Regarding your second question on the land sale. Yes, it is a small part that was sold at a very attractive price. When we see that attractive price, is where we think going forward of the return of the capital of that land, and so the IRR that we obtain going forward, maintaining that farm at that price, was not enough attractive, and that's why we reallocate that capital to something else, and we sell that piece of land. 800 hectares in that area, we are leasing more than 30,000 hectares.
That is not really relevant in terms of our production needs on the crop production system that we have there. That is someone willing to buy that specific piece of the farm, and he was able to pay a price that was interesting enough for us to make the decision to sell it. That's how we approach, and that's why today we are seeing this market, as I was saying before, that is much more active than what it was in the last four years. That is regarding the farm side. I will ask Renato to explain more on this acceleration on our view on our strategy of milling the sugarcane. Renato, the level of ethanol price expected, et cetera.
Thank you, Fernanda. Regarding the ethanol price, we think the outlook for ethanol has substantially improved through the quarter, with oil prices bouncing back to $40 per barrel levels, better prospects for demand, and lower production are the Centro-Sul mills . From the peak of the restrictions in April, the max price have increased by almost 30%, while demand improved 4% in July. In our analysis, the switch in mix towards sugar production will be responsible to reduce ethanol production by almost 6 million cubic meters and increase sugar in 10 million tons, which is more than enough to offset the loss in demand that we are expecting. We expect a loss in demand between 10%-12%, which is approximately 4 million cubic meters.
For this reason, we expect a tight ethanol S&D situation in the off-season, and parity with gasoline moving from the current 64% to 7%, which should provide an upside in prices between 10% and 15%. The fact that we have slowed down the crushing pace and have had normal rains in the second quarter has improved the sugarcane yields and crushing outlook for the second semester. As example, the sugarcane that we crushed in July had more than 20% increase in yields compared to the same period of last year. Therefore, we are confident we are going to take advantage of those good price by the end of the year.
Next question comes from Santhosh Seshadri from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. This is Santhosh here on behalf of Alex Falcao . Thanks for taking up my questions. Not sure if my questions have already been answered. I have a couple here. Can you walk us through your outlook for the second half of the year, specifically for your farming and land transformation business? I'm just looking for some color in terms of how the seasonality and changes in sales pattern, if any, would shape up your first half versus second half EBITDA split. Can you also give some color on your pre-sales or possibly your order book, if possible? My second question is on the cost side. You have done a very good job on the cost performance.
Can you give us some color on how much of the cost reduction in the sugar business was a result of currency, and how much was due to your negotiation and other cost-saving initiatives? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your question. Regarding the farming and land transformation, for the second semester, in order to understand the cycle of the farming and land transformation business, in this semester, we are finishing all the harvesting activities. As Charlie explained in detail, we are at the end of all these harvesting activities that were very challenging because of the pandemic, but the yields that we obtain and the ability and the cost reductions and the efficiencies that we obtain all along the chain to go to the domestic market or the export market. Also the flexibility that we have in all these farming business, including milk, including peanuts and flour, rice, that flexibility that we have to go to the domestic market and to the export market, gave us a great possibility in this pandemic because at the beginning, the domestic market was very strong.
We took advantage of that. The export markets improved, then we took advantage of the export market. That is part of the strategy that we defined a couple of years ago that is really paying off today. We expect that the second semester will continue more or less on the same lines while we think on all the sales of these things that we are harvesting and that we are finishing the harvesting. The cash generation will continue to be in line to what we've been seeing this first half of the year. We are starting the new harvest time. The second semester is where we are planting, where we are preparing for our next cycle. That is also going very well. Everything is very well prepared. Our contractors are ready. Our people is there starting to plant.
We are very positive on how it's working and for the future of the whole farming and land transformation business is that we are seeing a very important improvement and we expect to continue to see this. Regarding the cost reduction on the sugar and ethanol business, I would say that in general terms, we continue to focus in BRL to reduce costs. That's something that is happening. The level of reducing costs in BRL is relatively small in terms of percentages, but while we are reducing costs in BRL, all the depreciation of the BRL is transformed into cost in US dollar. When we look at the day-to-day of the business in Brazil, it's how to be more efficient with our cost in BRL terms. All that is translated into US dollars on the translation accounting.
I don't know, Renato, if you want to add something on this?
Well, just to add that our cost in reais, we are projecting a cost in reais this year close to BRL 0.40 per pound.
This concludes the question and answer section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Bosch for any closing remarks.
Oh, thank you. Just before we end the call, I woul d like to specially thank all our stakeholders, and really special thanks for the people that is working on our fields, especially in these difficult times, and they are doing an amazing job. I would also like to remark that the pandemic is still there, and we need to continue focusing on maintaining every line of business fully operational, and that we are constantly adapting and generating new preventive measures and raising our safety protocols and procedures to keep everyone in healthy conditions. Hope you all stay safe and healthy, and look forward to talk to you in our next meetings.
Thank you. This concludes today's presentation. You may disconnect your line at this time. Have a nice day.