- Sugar production has hardly grown in the past 10 years.
- Sugar and ethanol consumption continues to grow.
- Which countries might be able to increase output, and at what price?
Global Sugar Production is Barely Growing
Global sugar production has barely grown in the last decade.
There has been almost no investment in new cane or beet projects globally in the last decade thanks to falling world market sugar prices. As a result, sugar production on a per capita basis is at the lower end of the multi-decade trend.
The last time per capita sugar production was this low was in 2009 just before the start of sugar’s last great bull run from 10c to 36c.
Meanwhile, consumption has been growing at around 1% per year. The world therefore needs 14m tonnes more sugar than it did 10 years ago.
With the global population still growing, and ethanol being used on an increasingly large scale, demand for sucrose is only likely to grow across the next decade. For this reason, cane or beet production must increase.
This can be achieved through improved yields, but the gains here are marginal each season. The easier alternative is to grow more of each crop.
The question then is, which countries can do this?
Across this series, we assess the feasibility for cane and beet expansion in some of the world’s largest sugar growing regions: India, Brazil, Thailand, and Europe.
Other Insights That May Be of Interest…
The World Needs More Sugar…Can India Help?
