EU: 2012/13 sugar production seen falling 5.4%
Published: 07/04/2012, 8:36:20 AM
Sugar production in the European Union will fall by 5.4% next season, with output in France, the bloc's biggest grower, sliding 3.2%, according to Bloomberg.
The EU will produce 17.6 million metric tonnes of sugar in the 2012/13 season that starts in October, the European Commission said in a June 28 report on its website. That is down from 18.6 million tonnes in 2011/12, according to the report.
Output in France will fall to 4.62 million tonnes from 4.78 million tonnes the previous year, the commission forecast. Yields in the 27-nation bloc will drop to 11.1 tonnes a hectare (2.47 acres) from 11.6 tonnes a hectare in 2011/12, the report showed. Cane sugar produced in France's overseas territories is forecast to slip to 280,000 tonnes from 417,000 tonnes a year earlier.
Germany's crop, the EU's second-largest, is forecast to rise by 1.8% to 4.34 million tonnes from 4.27 million tonnes a year earlier, the data showed. Production in third-ranking Poland will be 1.64 million tonnes in 2012/13 from 1.91 million tonnes a year earlier, the commission forecasts.
The European Union white sugar price averaged EUR716 (US$902) a tonne in April, the highest since at least July 2006, the commission said in a separate report on its website. White sugar futures on NYSE Liffe are US$615 a tonne on NYSE Liffe.