After
three years of declining sugar production worldwide, the output has finally
witnessed a growth in the sugar extracting season of 2016/17* again. However,
the biggest producers showed different developments in their sugar output.
Market intelligence firm CCM has analysed the four biggest sugar producing
countries, namely Brazil, India, China, and Thailand, in terms of output and
conditions.
Source: Pixabay
The
worldwide output of sugar has increased again in the extracting season of
2016/17. According to Statista,
the sugar production in 2016/17 reached 170.9 million metric tonnes. This
amount represents an increase of 5.1 million metric tonnes compared to the
extracting season of 2015/16. However, the output is still lower than in the
three seasons before, whose witnessed global sugar outputs from 175.1 to 177.6
million metric tonnes.
Sugar
production worldwide from 2009/2010 to 2016/17 (in million metric tonnes)
Source:
Statista
Brazil
According
to CCM, Brazil is once more the largest sugar extractor in the season 2016/17
with a total amount of 35.3 million tonnes. This represents an increase of
output by more than 15%. In the last extracting season, Brazil was able to
extract 590 million tonnes of sugarcane, which in fact was less than in the
previous season. However, the sugar output rose significantly. The reason for
this difference can be found in Brazil’s farmers, which concentrated the focus
on their production of sugar rather than other commodities like ethanol, due to
the comparatively high sugar price on the world market.
According
to Reuters, Brazil’s key center-south sugar production will come in at 35
million tonnes in the extraction season 2017/18. Moreover, the analysts predict
millers in this region will direct more than 47% of their sugar cane plants to
sugar production in the 2017/18 harvest beginning in April. Brazil’s millers
can actually choose between the production of sugar or ethanol from their sugar
cane crops, while current high sugar prices encourage farmers to shift the
focus on sugar.
India
In
opposite to Brazil, the sugar output of India is going down in this extracting
season, with an estimated total amount of 21.3 million tonnes. In the last
season, the amount has been about 25.1 million tonnes. According to CCM, the
average consumption in India is stated at about 25 million tonnes, which leaves
some undersupply in the country and hence requires a higher import volume.
The
decline in India’s sugar output can be explained by some serious drought
occurrences in the main extracting areas. The most important area, Maharashtra
State, is accounting for about 33% of the national production. Crop damages in
this area will inevitably lead to reduced output in general.
Resulting
in the severe drought occurrence, the Indian government is under pressure to
remove the current 40% duty on imports of sugar. Furthermore, the affected
mills also asked the government to permit the import of a million tonnes of
sugar. The government has not decided on the requests and shows a more waiting
attitude towards possible declining sugar prices.
China
China
is capable of increasing its sugar output this extracting season by 13.79%.
This leads to a total amount of 9.9 million tonnes. Looking at the yearly sugar
consumption of about 15 million tonnes, the great gap between demand and supply
is visible. Thus, China is far from being self-sufficient in sugar output,
which makes the country still highly dependable on imports.
Thailand
Thailand,
the second-largest sugar exporter worldwide, is also facing a decline in sugar
output this extracting season. Similar to the situation in India, the country
suffered several droughts throughout the weather phenomena El Nino, which
harmed the planting situation of sugar. The output is going to decrease by 3,1%
to approximately 9.3 to 9.4 million tonnes.
What’s
more, Sugar is a sweet crystalline, which is usually acquired from sugar cane
and sugar beet. Looking back at the season 2014/15, Asia has been the largest
producer of sugar globally, due to the main sugar producing countries India,
China, and Thailand. However, Brazil is known to be the largest sugar cane
producer worldwide, while France and Russia used to be leading countries for
sugar beets output.
*Extracting
seasons of sugar 2016/17 for the four biggest producers
Brazil:
April 2016-March 2017
India,
China, Thailand: October 2016-September 2017
About CCM
CCM
is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals,
food & ingredients and life science markets.
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