Price volatility is an inherent characteristic of agricultural commodity markets. In contrast to well-monitored global market prices, information on domestic prices are often incomplete and difficult to obtain. The study finds that despite a positive correlation, there is a large gap between average world and domestic prices. On average, between 2007 and 2018, retail prices have been twice higher than world market prices for white sugar. World weighted average prices at the wholesale level remained over 40% above world market prices.

Although average wholesale domestic prices have shown strong correlation to world prices, the study also found significant variation between domestic prices in the surveyed sample.

Key Survey / Analysis

• Survey of domestic sugar prices in 88 countries over the last sixteen years
• Updating the 2015 survey with information up to 2018
• Analysis of beet and cane sugar producers, importers and exporters

A significant gap also exists between consumer prices within beet sugar producing countries and cane sugar producing countries, though this gap has narrowed in recent years. Finally, individual country analyses in major sugar consuming countries point to national balances and policies as key factors in determining the behaviour of domestic prices.

Contents:

Introduction 

I. Sources and Methodology 

II. Wholesale prices 
1. General observations 
2. Wholesale prices in beet and cane producing countries 
3. Wholesale prices in importing and exporting countries 
4. Regional variability in wholesale prices 

III. Retail prices 
1. General observations 
2. Retail prices in beet and cane producing countries 
3. Retail prices in importing and exporting countries
4. Regional variability in retail prices 

IV. Focus on selected countries 
1. India 
2. EU-28 
3. China 
4. Brazil 
5. US 
6. Mexico 
7. Russian Federation, CIS and the Eurasian Economic Union 
8. Thailand

Conclusion 
Statistical Appendix