Mexican cane growers will block domestic sugar supplies from Monday to fight for a 15 percent increase in prices from mill owners, the National Cane Growers Union said. Growers will only allow sugar bound for export to leave warehouses until they win a local price of 300 pesos ($21.20) per 110-pound (50-kg) bag, the union said on Sunday.
The union said sugar currently sells for up to 260 pesos a bag in Mexico. "The low sugar price has negative repercussions in the price of sugar cane," said the union, which represents more than 165,000 cane growers.
Mexicos sugar industry chamber was not immediately available for comment. Mexican production has outpaced demand this season and warehouses have more sugar than national consumption, meaning Mexico aims to export more to the United States.
The chamber told Reuters this month that Mexico expects to harvest 5.3 million tonnes of sugar in 2008/09. Mexico could export up to 1 million tonnes of sugar to the United States in the 2008/09 season, nearly double the amount sent in the previous cycle.
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