December 20, 2024
As quantities of sugar imported into the EU dwindle, one wonders if domestic sugar prices may now stabilize after October’s dramatic collapse? Only time will tell! I'll keep on monitoring official data to try to draw a picture of where the EU and UK sugar markets may be heading in 2025.
See an EU and UK sugar markets update and outlook report on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hools_eu-and-uk-sugar-markets-update-and-outlook-activity-7275666416089874434-ySTS
Licences to import quantities of sugar into the EU under TRQs remain low according to the latest European Commission data, even after the imposition of an “emergency brake” on sugar imports from Ukraine – which have been absent since July 2024. Those import licences recently issued were when the ICE #11 raw sugar futures prices were trading above 20 cents/lb (H5), but now that these benchmark prices have fallen well below 20 cents (UNICA numbers, weaker BRL/USD, possible India exports?), and bearing in mind that up to 110,000 tonnes of Ukrainian sugar may be imported between January and June 2025, we’ll have to see if EU sugar traders’ appetite to take positions to import may improve in the New Year.