2023-11-19T10:44:40+00:00
A-
A
A+
/ Sugar is trading around the world at the highest prices recorded since 2011, due to a decline in global supplies, after unusually dry weather damaged crops in India and Thailand, the world’s second and third largest sugar exporters.
According to a report by the Associated Press: This is the latest blow to the two developing countries, which are already suffering from shortages of staple foods such as rice, in addition to bans on food trade, which have led to food price inflation.
All of this contributes to food insecurity, due to the effects of the El Nino climate phenomenon, the war in Ukraine, and weak currencies.
Wealthier Western countries can absorb the higher costs of food, but poorer countries will suffer.
Fabio Palmieri, a researcher in global commodity markets at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), says that the organization “expects a 2 percent decline in global sugar production in the 2023-2024 season, compared to the previous year, which means a loss of about 3.5 million metric tons of sugar.” the product”.
Sugar is increasingly used in the production of biofuels such as ethanol, and thus global sugar reserves have reached their lowest levels since 2009.
Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of sugar, but its production will only help fill the gaps until late 2024.
Until then, import-dependent countries – such as most countries in sub-Saharan Africa – remain vulnerable.
Nigeria, for example, buys 98 percent of its raw sugar from other countries.
The country banned imports of refined sugar in 2021, which conflicts with a plan to manufacture sugar locally. The government announced a $73 million project to expand sugar infrastructure, but these are long-term strategies.
The current crisis is partly caused by El Nino, a natural phenomenon that changes global weather patterns and can cause extreme weather conditions ranging from drought to floods.
Scientists believe that climate change is making El Nino “more violent.”
Last August was the driest in India in more than a century, and crop growth stopped in the western state of Maharashtra, which represents more than a third of India’s sugarcane production.
Sugar production in India is likely to decline by 8 percent this year, according to the Indian Sugar Mills Association.
India, the world’s most populous country, is the largest consumer of sugar and is now restricting its exports.
In this context, the head of the Sugar Growers Association in Thailand, Naradep Anantasuk, said that the effects of the El Nino phenomenon at the beginning of the growing season in his country “not only changed the quantity of the crop, but also its quality.”
Anantasuk expects to grind only 76 million metric tons of sugarcane during the 2024 harvest season, compared to 93 million metric tons this year.
A report issued by the US Department of Agriculture expected sugar production in Thailand to decline by 15 percent last October.
The world now has a sugar stock that meets its needs for less than 68 days, compared to 106 days when sugar production began to decline in 2020, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture.
“Sugar production has reached its lowest levels since 2010,” Joseph Glauber, senior researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute, confirmed.
Indonesia – the largest importer of sugar last year – reduced its imports of the vital product, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
China, the number two importer, was forced to withdraw sugar from its stocks to compensate for the rise in prices locally for the first time in 6 years.
In this regard, Al-Mamoun Amrouk, an economist in the Trade and Markets Division of the FAO, said: “For some countries, importing expensive sugar eats up foreign currency reserves such as dollars and euros, which are also needed to pay oil bills and other basic commodities.”
The country of Kenya is an example of this. After it was self-sufficient in sugar, it now imports 200 thousand metric tons annually.
In 2021, the Kenyan government restricted sugar imports to protect local farmers from foreign competition, but retreated from this measure as local harvests shrank due to scarcity of rain and poor agricultural management.