RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR
A new year brings along with it fresh hope for a better future, full of resolutions and energy to effect change. January often starts with the best of intentions but by the end of the month business-as-usual has set back in and much of those hopes and dreams have succumbed to the reality of “what is”.
But, as with everything else, these are all choices to be made: look at in the same place next year, or worse, obsolete.
The sugar industry has the opportunity to make changes, but will it? Only time will tell.
Already 2019 has shone a ray of light on the otherwise dismal situation that is the “war on sugar.” After years of misinformation and miscommunication in the mainstream press fed by those who would see sugar demonised for their own ends, the UK’s Institute of Economic world that we have come to live in.
Sadly, the long list of facts laid out were in a comment piece rather than a headline news article, but it’s a start. And it’s been followed by pieces in The Spectator Health and BBC radio What’s important is to get that information out there, and the mainstream press may at last be ready to will begin to pick up the mantle of truth to begin re-educating the public who has been led astray.
FOLLOWING CONTENTIOUS ELECTIONS IN 2018, BRAZIL’S NEW PRESIDENT CHANGED HIS TUNE JUST BEFORE THE VOTE TO SAY HE SUPPORTED RENOVABIO, BUT WILL HE FOLLOW THROUGH?
The “war on sugar” is far from the only challenge that the industry is facing this year. Despite higher prices than this time last year, margins remain tight and that is provoking the consolidation typical after so many years of low prices. Already this year Olam has thrown in the towel, giving up on sugar trading because of those tight margins. Last year Bunge did the same, selling its entire book to Wilmar. Who else will give up sugar after surviving this long through the doldrums? India will remain a challenge as its monster production continues to hover over the global sugar market, with countries such as Australia and Brazil at the ready to take them to the World Trade Organisation. Several of those seeking to take India to the WTO for damage done to sugar prices and their domestic industries will take India to task mid-morning on March 27 during the Global Sugar Summit’s panel “Rumble in Geneva.” With the government set to issue even more bailouts to the domestic industry ahead of this year’s elections, the mess is likely to get even worse.
Following contentious elections in 2018, Brazil’s new president changed his tune just before the vote to say he supported RenovaBio, but will he follow through? The country’s policies regarding ethanol blending as well as marketing and trade have a major impact on whether mills produce ethanol or sugar, and until India’s production is reined in, the answer needs to be ethanol.
From water to weather to trade wars to smuggling, the industry has a lot on its plate this year, but with the hope and energy of a new year still fresh, there’s plenty of opportunity to be proactive and get ahead of those challenges before they raise their ugly heads.
Meghan Sapp T: +44 (0) 7444 880753 E:
meghan@sugaronline.com
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32 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | January/February 2019
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