
Low sugar prices rationalising the Brazilian sugar sector
Amidst the global surplus, which some analysts1 puts it at some 18 mln to 20 mln tonnes, and tumbling sugar prices which have fallen below 12 cents/lb, the Brazilian sugar […]

Sugar industries in French West Africa on the verge of collapsing from smuggling
Smuggling of sugar is not a new phenomenon. At the turn of the 19th century when Russia was a major global producer, sugar was smuggled from the country to as […]

Paying cane growers for bagasse also!
As with most things in life, cane payment systems are amenable to change and open for review, goaded not only by scientific and technical advances that heighten its value from […]

Toll sugar refineries face toil in the market place
In an attempt to demonstrate the fact that mental acuity does not decline with age, The New York Times reported the following (apocryphal) story a few years ago. A couple […]

Another bear year awaits sugar futures
Last year, sugar was the worst performing of the soft commodities, with New York-traded raw sugar futures falling by 22% and London white sugar dropping by over 31%, amidst the […]

Disruptive technologies AI and gene drives
The pace of scientific and technical advances driving innovation via disruptive technologies is seemingly accelerating. Advanced manufacturing is making redundant variety of jobs. “Boston Consulting Group reports that it costs […]

Reflections on the year
This year has been pretty ordinary for the global sugar industry as a whole. The old adage that sugar operates in a bear market with the odd bull spike, has […]

Policy makers and political masters
To paraphrase Balzac1, when the recommendations of policy makers are in harmony with the agenda of their political masters, then, fruitful progress is likely. The reform of the EU sugar […]

Deregulation of the EU sugar market
With the ending of sugar quotas in October, the EU sugar industry enters an uncharted territory. For the industry, shielded from the ravages of the market place for over 50 […]
EU sugar industry under threat from neonicotinoids ban
Policy makers with the support of politicians navigated the EU sugar industry from one that was simply not globally competitive to one that is now. Even though the process was […]