Top 10 World Sugar Producers
Each year a handful of countries compete to be the world’s biggest sugar producer, and in the past few years competition 
has been getting intense between Brazil and India, as India’s sugar production has grown in leaps and bounds and challenged Brazil’s domination of the world sugar market. Most sugar producing countries are not in a position to do battle with the sugar titans of Brazil and India, but nevertheless seek to increase their sugar production. In most cases, increased sugar production means more profits, but all countries are playing a balancing game between supplying local demand, supplying international demand, and doing both of these things without saturating the market and affecting global sugar prices negatively.
Fortunately for sugar producers, world global sugar consumption is rising steadily, and has been doing so since the mid 90’s. It is now estimated that the average person consumes around 24 kilograms of sugar every year. This growth has been fueled by the increasing prosperity of traditionally poor countries such as India, China, and those in the Middle East. The exception to this rule is Russia, where sugar consumption has been steadily falling due to high import tarrifs and low local production making sugar an expensive commodity.
However in spite of increased consumption, production looks set to exceed demand in 2008 by around 4 million tons, which could push smaller producers and exporters out of the business entirely for this period.
The following are the world’s top sugar producers for the 2008 period. Figures refer to the domestic production of raw sugar.
Brazil is typically the largest producer of sugar, and 2008 is set to be no different, with production forecast at 35 million tonnes. Sugar production is up by around five percent in 2008 due to historical world sugar demand, and the building of ninety new sugar cane mills. Because Brazil is a very low cost and efficient producer or sugar, it is not as affected as some other countries by price dips and fluctuations, maintaining a respectable profit ratio even when prices fall somewhat. Brazilians are also huge sugar consumers, and are well known for purchasing relatively large amounts of sugar regardless of its price point. Brazil has a major sugar cane growing region in the center south, and this region makes up over 60% of its yearly sugar production. With large flat plains and high quality soil, the harvesting and growing of sugar cane is much easier in Brazil than in some other nations. Brazil has also invested significant resources in developing strains of sugar cane with high sucrose content, which further increases the sugar yield at the mill.
India continues to recover strongly from the 2003/2004 dip and is projected to produce at least 26 million tonnes of sugar in 2008. In spite of the fact that India is a less efficient producer of sugar, overall returns on sugar are greater than many other crops. Raw sugar is also very popular amongst the poor not as a sweetener, but as a food source. Because the sugar is consumed raw it contains vitamins and minerals which are not present in refined sugar. As a result of this local demand for sugar, India has many small local sugar production centers, and sugar production overall is quite fragmented throughout the country.
The European Union follows India, with a forecast of around 16.5 million tonnes of sugar. This production is being actively scaled back as production far exceeds the demands of the region. It is feared that excesses of sugar will cause build ups and exports will contravene international agriculture agreements. Over the next few years, production is expected to fall from 16.5 million to 15 million.
China’s production of sugar is set to be up to 12.5 million tons in the year 2008 as part of the push from the Guangxi province which is aiming to produce 7.5 million tons alone by 2010. Sugar is becoming increasingly popular in China as more Western style diets begin to predominate the culinary landscape, and as more and more corn is turned over for ethanol production, making starch based sweeteners harder to come by. For these reasons, sugar prices within China continue to rise, which in turn fuel growth in the sugar production sector.
Thailand is expected to grow over 7 million tons of sugar in 2008. Because local demand is relatively low, almost half of this will be exported on the global market.
Mexico is expected to hit almost 6 million tons of sugar in 2008 due to positive weather conditions and increased mill efficiency. The Mexican sugar industry has been in a process of upheaval and restructuring as labor contracts came under review and reference prices fluctuated. Some mills have yet to be fully compensated for sugar produced in the 2006/2007 period, and this is causing some delays in sugar production.
Australia’s sugar production is forecast up to 5.1 million tons in 2008, as production continues to rise. Most of this sugar will be exported to various countries around the globe, over four fifths of it, in fact. It is estimated that four million tons of sugar will be exported from Australia in the 2007/2008 period.
Pakistan’s sugar production is expected to come in at around 4.35 million tons in 2008. Small amounts of sugar are being exported to Sri Lanka as Pakistan makes efforts to boost both its sugar production and regional exports. The Middle East and Bangladesh are also potential markets for the export of Pakistani sugar.
Russia’s production is still low at 3.5 million tons, but efforts are being made to increase the amount of sugar produced in Russia, and more and more sugar beet is being planted yearly. Russian sugar imports are gradually falling, a sure sign that the push to produce more sugar within the country is paying off. Local growth is being fueled by tarrifs on imported sugar that make it relatively costly, and justify the existence of local sugar production industry.
Cuba’s sugar production is down to around 1.6 million tons, partially due to heavy rains in 2007, and partially due to production equipment issues making the process of producing sugar in Cuba difficult and inefficient.
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