A recent price gallop to $0.20 a pound could not prevent sugar in its raw form from sliding -2.08% on March 24, 2025. Production revamp estimates in parts of Brazil and a strong dollar are behind this latest slide in New York.
After hugging $0.20 beginning March 17, the unrefined sweetener or sugar #11 fell to $0.19 a pound on the 24th.
Also in the same straits was refined white sugar or #5, in London, which shed -1.81% day-on-day, to a weekly low.
For unrefined sugar, the downturn owes to positive harvest news, which has been hounding its lengthy underperformance in 2025.
On March 12 came good production news from central-south Brazil that temporarily doused price steadiness. Datagro consultancy put production in this productive cane belt at 42.4 million tonnes, 6% up year-on-year. Increasing production forecasts are usually harmful for international and local prices, for they signal adequate market reserves.
Dealers themselves now expect the sporadic showers that have visited the central-southern cane belt to somewhat improve production.
This positive news overrides the national agency Unica’s February 2025 downward annual production estimate of -5.6%, to 39.822 million tonnes.
Another market-related bearish factor is India’s announcement in January 2025 to export 1 million tonnes despite weakening production.
Dollar Strength
Outside the production sphere is the immediate technical factor of a strong dollar, which has since March 21 weakened the actual price.
Whenever the dollar strengthens against source currencies of especially Brazil or India, international buyers buy the commodity cheaply at origin.
As of March 24, 2025, the dollar for example was 0.04% up against Brazil’s real at an exchange rate of 5.7644.
Even while dealers keep a weather eye on currencies, long-term focus is production in Thailand, India and Brazil for raw sugar price reckoning. Thailand is on the bearish side, after announcing in October 2024 of strong current production while India and Brazil officially expect low production. To learn more on the 2024-25 production outlook for these three countries, scour the statistics below.
Brazil, India and Thailand 2024-25 Raw Sugar Statistics
Ten countries, inclusive of the top trio of Brazil, India and Thailand, represent 70% of the world’s sugar production. This means that changes in output especially in these three countries is always impacting world supplies while perpetually shaping pricing. As such, below is a look at the latest estimates of raw sugar production by each country for the 2024-25 market year.
Thailand: in June 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) put Thailand’s 2024-25 sugar production at 10.2 million tonnes. The forecast means upward production by 16% year-on-year (y-o-y). This is significant since it comes in the heels of a -20% production slump in the 2023-24 season. In practice, sugarcane will lead the 2024-25 revamp by upping 12%, y-o-y. Furthermore, this growth will go hand-in-hand with a 4% rise in domestic sugar consumption due to demand surge.
Brazil: the 2024-25 sugar outlook in Brazil is bleak, with production down -5.6% y-o-y in the center-south, to 39.822 million tonnes. This is a significant drop since the country controls the global sugar trade. According to Unica, Brazil produces 25% of the world’s sugar while exports represent 50% of the global supplies.
India: the Indian Sugar and Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association in its part puts the 2024-25 production down to 26.4 million tonnes. The estimate dampens the global outlook, for India in 2024 ranked number 1 in world production at 34.3 million tonnes. While India limits exports to 1 million tonnes (2024-25 season) per year, its giant production still has spillover effects worldwide.