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World producesapproximately 190.2m tons of sugar

By Sabir Shah
April 14, 2020

LAHORE: The global sugar market had reached a volume of 190.2 million tons in 2019 and is further projected to reach a figure of 199.5 million tons by the year 2025, thus expanding at a compound annual growth rate of nearly one per cent during the next five years under review, an exclusive research undertaken by the "Jang Group and Geo Television Network" shows.

India is world’s largest sugar producer:

In contrast, during 2018-2019, approximately 178.93 million metric tons of sugar were produced worldwide, with India topping the list as being the largest producer of this commodity, beating out Brazil for the first time in 16 years.

(Reference: Messrs Statista, a globally-acclaimed German online portal for consumer surveys, statistics and data derived from over 22,500 sources economic sector and official sources)

The world sugar output had rested at 153.4 million tons in 2010, surging to 177.58 million tons within the next five years.

The size of global market for sugar and sweeteners:

According to the Massachusetts (United States)-based market intelligence firm "BCC Research", which claims that it provides comprehensive analysis of global market sizing, the global market for sugar and sweeteners is due to touch the $97.2 billion mark by 2017, up from $77.5 billion in 2012, hence growing at a compound annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent.

The "BCC Research" has more to say on this subject: "Sugar has been the most widely used sweetener in the world, with its closest substitute being high-fructose corn syrup.

The share of other caloric sweeteners is not significant in the global sweeteners market, but their shares are expected to rise in the coming years, due to increasing cases of obesity, diabetes, and growing health concerns among the people."

Research shows that subsidies have driven market costs for sugar well below the cost of production. As of 2018, about 75 per cent of world sugar production was not traded on the open market.

(Reference: Web magazine "Natural Products Insider", which claims to be the leading information source for marketers, manufacturers and formulators of dietary supplements and healthy foods since 1997)

A 2004 report by "Oxfam", a Britain-based confederation of 19 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, had called European Union (EU) sugar subsidies "dumping" and said they harmed the world's poor.

A World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the European Union quota and subsidy system in 2005-2006 had forced the EU to cut its minimum price and quotas, and stop doing intervention buying.

However, the EU had abolished some quotas in 2015, but minimum prices remain. Tariffs also persist for most countries. In 2009, the EU had granted Least Developed Countries a zero-tariff access to its market.

(Reference: the Guardian)

As of 2018, India, Thailand and Mexico also subsidise sugar.

(Reference: The Washington Times)

According to the Canadian Sugar Institute, the world sugar trade environment for sugar is dramatically uneven.

Messrs "Investopedia", a New York-based website, which provides investing and finance education along with reviews, ratings and comparisons of various financial products such as brokerage accounts etc, writes: "Approximately 80% of the world's sugar is produced from sugarcane in tropical and subtropical climates with the remaining 20% derived from sugar beet, which is grown mostly in the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere.

A total of 124 countries produce sugar. India produced 33million metric tons of sugar. That is 19% of the world's total sugar production of 179 million metric tons.

The nation is seeing record levels of sugar production due to increased sugar farmland and improved yields. However, for 2019/2020, the country expects sugar production to drop by approximately 26%. This is because of droughts in 2018 that caused farmers to reduce sugarcane planting and because of floods in 2019 damaging crops."

About Brazil's sugar production, the eminent American website had maintained: "Brazil has historically been the world's largest sugar producer but ceded second place to India in the 2018/2019 crop year. The country produced 29.5 million metric tons of sugar. The drop in production has been caused by poor conditions, such as droughts and low prices. However, Brazilian auto fleets are fully equipped to run on ethanol so there is considerable domestic demand for the alternative fuel, which has resulted in a slight change towards producing more cane ethanol."

The London-based International Sugar Organization has held: "Currently, about 110 countries produce sugar from either cane or beet, and eight countries produce sugar from both cane and beet.

Sugarcane, on average, accounts for nearly 80% of global sugar production. Last October/September season the top ten producing countries (India, Brazil, Thailand, China, the US, Mexico, Russia, Pakistan, France, Australia) accounted for nearly 70% of global output."

International trade of sugar:

The International Sugar Organization states: "World sugar trade averages about 64 million tons per year. Raw sugar accounts for around 60% of internationally trade volumes. Although many countries produce sugar, top five exporters (Brazil, Thailand, EU, Australia, India) were responsible on average for nearly 70% of the world trade in 2016-18. Brazil, as the largest producing and exporting country in the world, dominates world trade, accounting for about 45% of global exports. Indonesia, China the United States were world’s largest importing nations in 2018."

The average prices for sugar worldwide from 2014 to 2025 (in nominal U.S. dollars per kilogram:

According to German online database "Statista", the average global sugar prices had rested at $0.37 in 2014, $0.3 in 2015, $0.4 in 2016, $0.35 in 2017, $0.28 in 2018, $0.28 in 2019 and $0.29 in 2020. The prices of this commodity are projected to be $0.3 in 2021, $0.3 in 2022 and $0.31 in 2023, $0.32 in 2024 and $0.33 in 2025.