sugar trade Archives

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘U.S. – Sugar – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights‘. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

In 2022, sugar prices in the U.S. are forecast to drop 4% y/y with support measures from the American government and expected sufficient global supply. Last year, the average retail refined sugar price in America jumped by 8% y/y to 68.4 cents per pound.

According to USDA data, sugar prices in the U.S. rose moderately last year, although domestic production recorded growth during that period. In 2021, the average retail refined sugar price in the U.S. amounted to 68.4 cents per pound, increasing by 8% y/y. This was the highest spike in annual retail sugar prices since 2011.

American beet and cane sugar production rose by 10% y/y to 8.3M tonnes last year. Yield per harvested sugarbeet area increased by 13% y/y to 33.2 tonnes per acre. Combined with supply chain disruptions related to Hurricane Ida, rising energy and logistics costs have contributed to the sugar price growth. Imports into the U.S. amounted to 1.6M tonnes in Q1-Q3 2021, dropping by -11% compared to the same period 2020.

This year, U.S. sugar prices are forecast to ease by approx. 4% y/y due to expected stable supply in the global market and support measures provided by the American government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the following actions to increase available sugar supplies to the U.S. market: increasing the Overall Allotment Quantity in 2022, transferring allocations from beet processors with surplus allocation to those with deficit allocation, and boosting raw cane sugar imports from Mexico.

U.S. Sugar Imports by Country

In 2020, the amount of sugar imported into the U.S. expanded to 2.4M tonnes, picking up by 2.4% against 2019. In value terms, supplies totaled $1.2B (IndexBox estimates).

Mexico (735K tonnes), Brazil (404K tonnes) and the Dominican Republic (212K tonnes) were the main suppliers of sugar imports to the U.S., together comprising 57% of total imports.

In 2020, supplies from Brazil grew twofold, while imports from the other countries experienced more modest paces of growth.

In value terms, Mexico ($423M) constituted the largest supplier of sugar to the U.S., comprising 34% of total imports. The second position in the ranking was occupied by Brazil ($185M), with a 15% share of total imports. It was followed by the Dominican Republic, with a 9.5% share.

The average sugar import price stood at $525 per tonne in 2020, surging by 1.6% against the previous year. Prices varied noticeably by the country of origin; the country with the highest price was Colombia ($850 per tonne), while the price for Guatemala ($422 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by the Philippines, while the prices for the other major suppliers experienced more modest paces of growth.

Source: IndexBox Platform

Washington, D.C. – A new bi-level U.S.-Mexico trade pact eliminating tariffs on imports of sugar from Mexico, but also establishes minimum prices and caps on the amount of different types of sugar that can be exported from the U.S., has drawn fire from a major U.S.-based industry group.

“With the stroke of a pen, these agreements dismantle the unrestricted free trade of sugar between the United States and Mexico since 2008 and undermine the core principles of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),” said the Sweetener Users Association (SUA).

The Washington, D.C.-headquartered SUA is the largest sugar-related industry group in the country representing such sugar-using giants as Mars Inc. and the Hershey Company.

The deal, says the group, “has increased the importance of broadening access to the domestic market through other trade agreements and the need for greater reform of a government sugar support program.”

The agreement “will limit supplies of sugar from Mexico, driving up costs for food companies and consumers, and make it necessary to boost access to the U.S. sugar market to Australia and Canada through the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,” the group said, adding they “move the U.S. sugar program in the wrong direction.”

In essence, the new deal curbs the access to the U.S. sugar market Mexico obtained through NAFTA, which was finalized late last week after changes to a pact that was traded to end a U.S. government investigation into the dumping of cheap, subsidized sugar from Mexico.

The signed deal raises the price floor for sugar and lowers the proportion of refined sugar that the country can export to the United States.

For several years, the SUA has pushed for an overhaul of the controversial U.S. sugar program that it and other critics say bloat U.S. prices amid a complicated network of import restrictions and price supports.

12/22/2014

U.S. Sugar Prices to Ease 4% With Government Support and Sufficient Global Supply

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