Sugar, Stevia etc.

[kennynah]

winston :

if u made a call now...any call...

i can almost assure you, within 10 years, you will have your day....

[winston]

Very soon, thet will not be leaving packets of sugar on the tables of your fav restaurant ...

Sugar crisis worsens as Indonesia fails to buy

The sugar crisis deepened on Thursday after Indonesia, one of the world’s leading importers, failed to buy a single pound of the sweetener in its latest tender.

The setback sent the price of white sugar in London to an all-time high of $760 a tonne. The cost of raw sugar in New York hit a fresh 29-year high of 29.82 cents a pound. Sugar prices have surged 150 per cent since January 2009.

Leading importers in south-east Asia, the Middle East and west Africa are running out of sugar inventories, traders and brokers said, prompting fresh tenders to replenish stocks. Pakistan will tender next month and others are expected to follow.

“If they don’t buy soon, the next stop is an empty shelf,” said Peter de Klerk at London-based sugar merchant Czarnikow.

Shortages are already emerging in some Asian countries, according to local reports. Among the main importers, only Egypt appears to have covered its needs.

Although sugar is no longer a key food commodity in developed countries, it is still a crucial source of calories in emerging countries, making its price a political issue.

Chart showing raw sugar pricesJonathan Kingsman, of Lausanne-based consultancy Kingsman, said that domestic white sugar prices in some importing countries had reached $1,000 a tonne, well above the equivalent international benchmark of about $760 a tonne, a sign of tight supplies. “Countries are running out of sugar stocks,” he said.

The scarcity is such that the European Commission is considering whether it can legally export more sugar under World Trade Organisation rules. “We are in an exceptional situation in the world market,” said an official in Brussels.

Europe’s sugar exports are capped at about 1.37m tonnes after an agreement in 2004 when Brazil, Australia and Thailand – all big exporters – filed a legal complaint. An announcement by the European Commission is due on Tuesday.

Sugar traders doubted Brussels would go ahead with further sales, but acknowledged that European beet farmers had enough surpluses to export an additional 600,000-800,000 tonnes this year.

The sugar crisis has been caused by a large supply deficit due to disappointing crops in Brazil and India, the world’s top producers, due to bad weather. Meanwhile, sugar demand has continued to grow.

In India, the world’s largest consumer, a dry monsoon due to the El Niño weather phenomenon has damaged the cane crop. Sugar production has dropped to around 15m tonnes in 2009-10, down more than 40 per cent from a normal year.

Meanwhile, El Niño brought rains to the dry season in Brazil, which accounts for 60 per cent of world exports. The wet weather has cut the number of days that farmers can cut cane and also reduced the amount of sucrose that refiners can extract, resulting in lower production.

Other producers, including Mexico, China, Russia and several central American countries have also harvested a lower than expected crop.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aa4a30bc-06b9 ... ck_check=1

[millionairemind]

Jan 27, 2010
EU to release excess sugar
BRUSSELS - THE European Commission on Wednesday proposed the release of half a million extra tonnes of sugar for export - more than a third of its normal annual quota - because of 'exceptional market conditions.'

The 'temporary' scheme to allow producers to market the fruits of a 'very good' harvest came amid record prices on world markets pushed up by bad weather in India and Brazil that has reduced global stocks.

European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel stressed in a statement that the extra sugar released between now and July 'can be exported without violating the European Union's World Trade Organisation subsidy commitments.'

The EU is normally allowed to export a maximum of 1.34 million tonnes of subsidised sugar, a Brussels spokesman said.

Sugar prices last week hit their highest level for 29 years on both sides of the Atlantic.

In New York, unrefined sugar reached 29.82 US cents a pound, while the London market struck a similar peak at 767 pounds per tonne. -- AFP

[millionairemind]

I think BC has a short on the sugar futures. This should make him happy

COMMODITIES-Sugar sees biggest day loss since 2008; cotton up

Tuesday February 23, 2010 10:38:22 PM GMT
By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. sugar prices took their biggest one-day loss in almost two years on Monday on worries about a bumper crop underway in Brazil, while coffee plumbed an eight-month low in London on heavy selling by funds.

Soybean and grains rose on concerns that rains were delaying harvests. Cotton neared a two-year peak on speculation that supplies of the fiber were tightening.

Outside of agricultural markets, the dollar forced gold and copper down as the currency strengthened against the euro.

The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index finished down 0.4 percent, reflecting the mixed close across the 19 commodity markets it tracks, despite higher prices for crude oil, its main component.

In sugar, prices for the raw form of the commodity traded in New York plunged on worries that Brazil was headed for a huge crop in the new season.

Raw sugar's most active contract, May, ended down 1.84 cents, or 7 percent, at a 10-week low of 24.12 cents a lb. Reuters data showed that it was the biggest drop in a day for a second month contract on the market, since a 10.4 percent loss on March 17, 2008.

Since December, raw sugar has consistently traded above 25 cents a lb on fears that demand from India and other major consumers was squeezing the market. As February opened, the front-month contract, March, cracked the 30 cents per lb resistance long eyed by market bulls.

That run-up may be on hold for now as Brazil's center-south cane harvest gets underway, boosting production prospects for the No.1 sugar producer and exporter.

"I think we are due a sharp correction," said Abah Ofon, sugar analyst at Standard Chartered Bank.

"I don't side with the bulls who think sugar is going to stay above 25 cents," Ofon said. I think it is going to come down."

In coffee, the robusta grade for May delivery closed down $40, or 3.1 percent, at $1,263 a tonne in London. It had fallen earlier to $1,256 a tonne -- marking an eight-month low for a benchmark second month contract.

In New York, arabica coffee for May closed down 5.15 cents, or 3.8 percent, at $1.319 per lb -- the lowest price for the contract since Feb. 10.

Cotton futures finished near a two-year top as tight supplies in the United States and the steady appetite of investment funds fueled a rally in a market showing little signs of easing since last week.

The benchmark May cotton contract gained 0.72 cent to settle at 79.70 cents per lb.

Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia, said cotton could soon top 80 cents, a target originally set for late March or early April.

On the currency side, the dollar extended the gains it scored last week after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the rate it charges banks for emergency loans. Investors saw the Fed's move a potential end to the easy money regime that had fueled financial markets, including commodities.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said long bets on the dollar were at their highest levels since the week of Sept. 23, 2008.

A stronger dollar makes commodities priced in the currency costlier for users of money such as the euro.

[b0rderc0llie]

Yup, very happy. I am long cotton too

Now clearing my short positions by buying them on the way down. It can be called taking profit, catching a falling knife or buying on the way down

[kennynah]

starting a textile company? make adadis knockoffs ? wahahaha...

[b0rderc0llie]

Hehe, am long cotton, milk, cattle, wheat, oats, rough rice, soybean and the volatility index. Can start what company with those ?

[kennynah]

open supermart and name it, Seng Song(Happy First), to fight with Sheng Siong...

[millionairemind]

Hehe, am long cotton, milk, cattle, wheat, oats, rough rice, soybean and the volatility index. Can start what company with those ?

You are becoming Singapore's Jim Rogers

Just curious if you can share why these commodities? Was it thro' fundamental research, technical charting or other means?

[Musicwhiz]

Hehe, am long cotton, milk, cattle, wheat, oats, rough rice, soybean and the volatility index. Can start what company with those ?

Hehe, wow, sounds like a farm! Grow cotton, oats, wheat, soybean and rice. Then feed the cattle and milk them.