Global sugar prices go from sweet to bitter

Despite the recent steep decline in benchmark costs, production hums along at Toronto’s Redpath factory

Last week was not a sweet one for sugar.

A global oversupply of the sweet stuff has sent prices to the lowest since 2009 after four straight years of losses.

Benchmark sugar prices dropped 2.1 per cent in early trading Friday in New York, extending losses to 22 per cent this year.

The global glut has hit Brazil’s economy hard, with the real dropping. In all, 47 Brazilian ethanol and sugar mills closed and 70 filed for bankruptcy in Brazil since 2011.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday proposed that nutrition facts labels include the percentage of recommended daily intake of added sugars in a food item.

Adding new line for added sugars, or those that don’t occur naturally, is part of an overhaul of the nutrition facts label proposed last year by the Obama administration.

The FDA proposal would be based on that number, meaning that added sugars should be no more than 200 calories, or about 50 grams, in a recommended daily diet of 2,000 calories. So if a food label says something has 50 grams of added sugars, the per cent daily value for added sugars would be listed as 100 per cent.

“For the past decade, consumers have been advised to reduce their intake of added sugars, and the proposed per cent daily value for added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label is intended to help consumers follow that advice,” said Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Through the commodity’s ups and downs, however, the Redpath sugar factory has continued to work on the Toronto waterfront, just as it has for more than 50 years. About 500,000 tonnes of sugar are shipped into Toronto each year via the facility on Queens Quay E.

Here’s a rare look behind the scenes at the factory.

JAMES MACDONALD PHOTOS/BLOOMBERG The Redpath Sugar Ltd. refinery and storage facility in Toronto. About 500,000 tonnes of sugar are shipped into Toronto each year via the facility on Queens Quay E.

Raw sugar pours into a storage facility as it is off-loaded from a cargo ship. Global sugar supply outpaced demand for the past five seasons, with a surplus of 3.88 million metric tons forecast for the year ending in September.

The Chestnut, a cargo ship from South America, unloads raw sugar. The global glut has hit Brazil’s economy hard.

Redpath Sugar Ltd. trailers sit lined up at the company’s refinery and storage facility.

A crane operator makes repairs to a crane scoop.