High prices sweeten sugar export hopes

With global sugar prices expected to rise to the highest levels since 1981, regional sugar producers are hoping to increase exports once more. Sugar remains Swaziland’s top export in terms of volume, but the industry has suffered from lower global prices in recent years. Sales were down 2% last year, but profits were up 25% as the exporting plantations showed market savvy, shifting focus from lower-priced buyers in the SA Customs Union and the US to EU buyers willing to pay more. Road freight firms like Cargo Carriers transport bulk sugar from plantations in the Eastern lowveld to Durban. Little has been realised from efforts to create “value added” products from the crop to boost export earnings from pricier products like ethanol and molasses. “Even when gas prices went through the roof nothing was done with a pilot programme to distill ethanol from sugar cane. This isn’t a bad thing with the sugar price going up because that means more raw sugar is available for the international market, and more for us to carry,” the manager of one road freight transporter told FTW. Swaziland angered SA trade authorities recently by signing an EPA with the EU that safeguarded Swazi sugar’s European market.