Monterrey.- The national production of sugar in the Country of the 2022/2023 harvest will drop to about 5.5 million tons, due to the ravages of the drought and the increase in prices of just over 100 percent that fertilizers suffered last year.
According to the National Union of Cane Growers (UNC), this figure represents 11.3 percent less than the 6.2 million tons obtained in the previous cycle.
This volume is the lowest of the last three harvests (the sugarcane harvest and sugar production cycles run from November to July of the following year).
Derived from the lower expected supply, yesterday in the Country’s Supply Centers the price of sugar climbed to a record level for a second week of May, averaging (wholesale and half wholesale) 1,107 pesos per standard 50-kilogram package and in 1,358 pesos the refined one, reveal figures from the Ministry of Economy.
Those prices represent an annual increase of 25 and 33 percent, respectively.
At the consumer level, the latest data published yesterday by the Inegi indicate that until April of this year, in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, the kilogram of brown sugar had an annual increase of 17 percent, going from an average price of 23.3 to 27.3 pesos.
Refined sugar, he points out that until last month, it had an annual increase of 10 percent, trading at an average value of 28 pesos per kilogram.
Carlos Blackaller Ayala, president of the National Union of Cane Growers, indicated that the drought and the increase in fertilizers caused an 11 percent decrease in sugar cane production.
In addition to a drop in the concentration of sucrose in the canes, which was reflected in the operation of the mills in the current harvest, which this year will end in June, one month earlier than usual.
Figures from the UNC detail that of the 48 mills that operated in the current cycle, as of April 22, 38 milled less cane than in the 2021/2022 harvest, 41 had produced less sugar than the previous harvest, and that 36 had a yield factory lower than last harvest. The next harvest begins in November.
“The increase in costs, particularly fertilizers, hit sugarcane production, but the main factor was the almost generalized drought that occurred in the country’s sugarcane fields, since there were states in which in 8 months they had almost no rains,” Blackaller added.
Juan Carlos Anaya, director of Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas (GCMA), said that the rise in sugar is already having an impact on the products that use it as an input.
“It is hitting soft drinks, juices, pastries and households itself; we estimate that the increases will continue until the new harvest begins; in Mexico and the United States we have the highest sugar prices,” he said.
