The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) on Wednesday (June 28, 2017) reported that the World Market price for sugar has dropped to US 12.66 cents per pound.
The Corporation noted that one of the key factors in the business of sugar is markets is price and over the past six months, the World Market price for sugar has dropped significantly with a range of US$ 250 – 275 per tonne which is in the vicinity of 12.5 cents per pound (c/lb).
GuySuCo supplies 65,000 tonnes of bagged and packaged sugar to Caribbean and local markets annually. Another 12,000 tonnes of raw sugar is supplied to the North American market while the remainder which is also raw sugar, is sold on the European market.
The supply to Europe for the Second Crop 2017 will total some 70,000 tonnes.
The current forecast is that there will be a surplus of sugar on the World Market for the marketing year 2017/2018, GuySuCo said.
Also, from 1st October 2017, the European Union (EU) market will also see some radical changes since it is anticipated that significant additional amounts of beet sugar will be available for sale and this will compete directly with cane sugar.
The Corporation noted that this may result in reduced sugar prices in Europe.
“Due to the competition with beet producers, the price paid by the refiners for raw cane sugar (as supplied by GuySuCo)will be more in line with the World Market Price, which currently is trading at US$275 per tonne and the forecast is that it will not increase significantly in the near future,” GuySuCo outlined.
The price at the commencement of the year was US$396 per tonne.
The state-owned organisation has noted that the anticipated lower prices for the sugar sold will not assist its fragile financial position and poor liquidity will continue to pose a serious challenge in the upcoming Second Crop.
The Corporation is, therefore, encouraging its employees, particularly harvesters and planters, to turn out and assist their estates to harvest all canes in the cultivations and maximise on sugar production.
Sugar-dependent communities are also urged to support the Corporation’s outreach drive to increase attendance on all estates for the Second Crop which starts mid-July.
