Trends, challenges and outlook for world cane and sugar production and the markets

Sugar is still, but is less and less a final consumer product, the justification for its invention, development and large market. Less and less a food item, but more and more a food ingredient. Therefore long term position of sugar in the fast increasing population of sweeteners is considered. The competitive position of cane sugar in respect to starch sugars and high intensity sweeteners is not very good. Pathways to reducing the production costs are shown. The yield of sugar per hectare must be increased in many countries. The price/quality relationship gains in importance for the main customers, the food manufacturing companies. The production share of the low quality sugars in total world production has remained constant over the last years. There is a trend to produce white sugar of low to high quality on site at the cane sugar factory. The distribution of different sugar qualities on sugar imports and exports are discussed. The share of directly produced cane sugar in white sugar exports has increased to about 50%.