The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday lifted its outlook for domestic sugar supplies in the 2018/19 crop year as cane production is set to increase. The USDA set the closely watched stocks-to-use ratio at 14.6 versus a December forecast of 13.5, the agency said in its in its monthly supply-demand report. No forecast was issued in January due to the US government shutdown.
That compares with an estimated ratio of 16.1 for the crop year that ended September 30. Louisiana's cane sugar production in 2018/19 was seen at 1.875 million short tons raw value (1.7 million tonnes), higher than the December estimate of 1.841 million tons. Cane production in Florida was seen at 2.091 million tons, compared to previous expectations of 2.05 million tons.
The outlook for beet production, however, was unchanged at 4.9 million tons. Overall, US sugar farmers will produce 9.017 million tons in 2018/19, compared to the 8.941 million tons expected in December. Imports were seen little changed. A decrease in sugar imported under free trade agreements in 2018 more than offset additional inflows of 2017/2018 World Trade Organization tariff-rate quota sugar in October 2018. Ending stocks for 2018/19 were seen at 1.795 million tons versus the previous forecast of 1.664 million tons.
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