September 23, 2015
Sugaronline | http://goo.gl/GnKhCv
The global sugar deficit could grow to as much as 6.2 million metric tonnes in 2016/17, from 2.5 million tonnes forecast in 2015/16, the executive director of the International Sugar Organisation (ISO), Jose Orive, said at a Brazil Sugar Week conference, according to Reuters.
Orive said world consumption of sugar is expected to grow 2.5% annually in 2016 while production globally will likely remain unchanged from this year.
He was speaking at the 15th International Datagro Conference on Sugar & Ethanol in Sao Paulo.
Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of the sweetener, and is in the midst of an expected record crushing season that will harvest 600 million tonnes of cane from the center-south crop.
"In the past five seasons, the world accumulated 25 million tonnes in sugar stocks," Orive said, adding that this would keep prices on the global market from reacting immediately to the expected deficit in production.
Orive said it would not surprise him if governments such as Thailand and others continued to provide incentives for producing sugar despite the multiyear price lows and heavy stocks. "Other alternatives are not attractive," he said.
Thailand is expected to produce 11.1 million tonnes of sugar in the 2014/15 season, just shy of last season. Next year, the large Asian exporter of the sweetener is in line to produce 11.5 million tonnes, Orive said.
Orive said China should import 4.5 million tonnes of sugar in 2015 and 4.7 million next year, but "its release of stockpiles are still a question mark."
Meanwhile, China imported 275,703 tonnes of sugar in August, down 24.75% from the same month a year ago, although traders said the fall was caused by late arrival of cargoes and shipments should rebound next month.