Sweet taste of success down South

Increased supply against plummeting demand will push prices down.

For example, by this September the global sugar inventories could last another six months.

This poses a danger to countries that depend on European and other overseas markets — which are highly selective but offer good prices, at about 50 per cent more than what is offered on the open markets.

It is these overseas countries that have been hit badly by the global crunch.

For this reason, countries in the sub-region are trying to intensify the local markets.

Some governments are helping their sugar exporters to shift their attention from overseas markets in Europe and America to regional markets.

Zambia is already exports to neighbouring states like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.

The SADC encourages countries in the region to trade with one another.

Deputy executive secretary Jao Caholo bemoans the trend where crucial food items like sugar are exported wholly to overseas markets.

He says this is not only harmful to food security but undermines the spirit of intra-trade.

Meanwhile, of all the globally traded commodities, none is more distorted by restrictive barriers than sugar is.

Hence southern Africa producers face a plethora of problems before the sugar markets stabilise.

And even then, they will not have the muscle to compete with countries like Brazil and Australia, which are slowly dominating the world market.