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Insight Focus
- Sugar crops in Louisiana, North Dakota and Michigan need more rain.
- But 2023 beet production estimate 5% higher than 2022.
- Slow deliveries of bulk refined sugar.
Prices remained steady with slow activity in the cash sugar market during the week ended Aug. 11. Focus stayed fixed on sugar beet and cane crops, which still needed rain in some areas.
Of the eight sugar beet reporting states, three had improved crop condition ratings from a week ago while three had lower ratings and one was unchanged, according to US Department of Agriculture state crop updates. Conditions in Montana continued to be unreported, but trade sources have said its crop is in good shape.
Dryness remained a major factor for sugar beet crops in Michigan and North Dakota. One analyst estimated a loss of up to 100,000 tons of 2023-24 beet sugar due to diminishing crop conditions in those two states. However, early sugar content tests with Michigan sugar beets have indicated better-than-expected results.
Initial hopes for a bumper crop in Colorado have been set aside by the absence of the appropriate number of heating degree days in the state, which has cut into the crop’s potential to develop significant sugar content. But ideas were the crop would produce an average yield.
Condition ratings for the Louisiana cane crop continued to fall as nearly three-quarters of the state was in some level of drought. If conditions persist, some analysts expect Louisiana may lose up to 60,000 tons of its 2023-24 sugar cane production. Harvest is still a couple months away, leaving plenty of time for beneficial rains to restore yields, but it is unlikely the final yields will return to their previously forecasted levels.
Although sugar cane crop condition ratings are not reported for Florida, trade sources said the state’s crop remains in great shape.
The USDA in its Aug. 11 Crop Production report forecast 2023 sugar beet production at 34,358,000 tons, up 5% from 2022, and sugar cane production at 34,922,000 tons, up 0.7% from last year.
Slow deliveries of bulk refined sugar endured for most beet processors and some distributors, continuing to add some supply to the spot market. But the pace was expected to pick up later this month as bakers and other food manufacturers begin preparations for the typically busy fall and holiday baking periods.
Sales for 2023-24 were slow. Prices remained unchanged. Early ideas about forthcoming price weakness later this fall due to undelivered supplies and harvest pressure have begun to dissipate on expectations for lower beet and sugar cane production. But there is still time before harvest for rain to salvage some potential yield losses.
The corn sweetener market was mostly routine with no indication of contracting activity for 2024. Deliveries of 42% high-fructose corn syrup were said to be slow (as were beet sugar deliveries). Deliveries of heavy corn syrups were steady. Prices were unchanged.
