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Insight Focus
Beet sugar prices rise amid delayed buyer coverage. Cane and beet sugar gap narrows while cane remains steady amid capacity shifts. Harvests of sugar beet and cane continue, with beet slightly behind the 2020-24 average, as corn sweetener negotiations for 2025 proceed.
The 2025 spot beet sugar prices moved higher during the week ending October 3. Beet sugar prices for the 2025-26 period also increased.
While many have already extended their contracts into the new season, processors said there were still several users who had yet to add coverage. Despite the start of the new marketing year on October 1, there appeared to be no sense of urgency among these buyers.
Their delay, however, is unlikely to be rewarded with lower prices, despite an atmosphere riddled with soft demand and an outlook for record-high domestic sugar production this year. Even the start of harvest was not enough to pressure prices. The prevailing view was that values, especially for beet sugar, had already tumbled low enough in 2025, and sellers were now determined to correct values.
Cane, Beet Price Gap Narrows
The gap between domestic cane sugar and beet sugar prices, which had been as wide as 15c/lb earlier this year, has narrowed to about 5c/lb. Traditionally, the gap between the two sugars has been about 2c/lb to 3c/lb.
Source: USDA
Despite the upward adjustments in beet sugar prices, cane sugar prices were not expected to move much, if at all. During the late spring and early summer, nearby Midwest beet sugar values ranged from 38c/lb to 41c/lb and are now priced at 46c/lb. During the same period, Northeast and Southeast cane sugar values have only moved from 52c/lb and 50c/lb, respectively, to 51c and 50c/lb.
Cane sugar prices appear locked between the offsetting dynamics of weaker overall demand and diminishing capacity.
In June, American Sugar Refining, parent of Domino Sugar, announced it would shutter its sugar refinery in Yonkers, New York, by the end of this year. Last week, however, Bizos Cavallo, Vera International, and Verax Commodities signed a purchase agreement to acquire the assets of Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers, including Santa Rosa Sugar LLC, with the intent of restoring the South Texas sugar cane industry. It will, however, take several years for the expected capacity, if realised, to impact the market.
Sugar Beet and Cane Harvest Advances
Meanwhile, harvest continues for both sugar beet and sugar cane crops. In its weekly Crop Progress report, the USDA said sugar beets in the four major states were 15% harvested as of September 28, up 3 percentage points from a week earlier, even with a year ago but slightly behind the 2020-24 average of 17%.
Source: USDA
Most states typically begin full harvest around the first week of October, although unseasonably warm weather this fall may prevent piling beets outdoors and delay the ramp-up in harvest activities. The sugar cane crop in Louisiana was 6% harvested as of September 28, even with a year earlier but slightly ahead of the 4% five-year average.
Corn sweetener negotiations for 2025 annual contracts are ongoing, with buyers seeking lower prices due to record-large corn supplies and waning demand, while refiners aim to hold prices steady.
