bob@islenet.UUCP (Bob Cunningham) (06/08/85)
[let's move all this to net.misc] > In article <1152@islenet.UUCP> I wrote: > > > >... cane (and probably beet) sugar is currently a glut on the world > >market. Here in Hawaii the sugar cane plantations are gradually closing > >down. If the U.S. government didn't have a "floor" price support for sugar > >(which is anyways too low, according to the sugar people), they'd already > >be out of business. > In article <950@cae780.UUCP> (Brian Gordon): > Funny you should mention it - a local consumer affairs radio program was > mentioning that while the U.S. wholesale price of sugar is around 21 cents > a pound, the world price hovers at 2 to 2 1/2 cents, so we consumers pay > about 10 times the going rate ... I guess it all depends on your point of > view. The 2 to 3 cents is probably for bulk, unrefined sugar (molasses), F.O.B. various 3rd world countries. The $.21 a pound rate sounds like the price for refined (granular) sugar F.O.B. some warehouse in the U.S. Thus the real cost difference isn't as spectacular. It's still very real, however. I believe the "floor" price in the U.S. to producers is now $.12-.13. There is far less sympathy in Congress for sugar price supports than for the more popular (and more "essential") agricultural products. Expect the price supports to be done away with in the next few years. The reality is that U.S. producers with high land, labor and tax costs cannot compete with 3rd world countries -- even with a considerably higher degree of mechanization. It's happened with coffee, bananas, pineapple, and now sugar. The trend will probably continue ... especially for crops easily grown in the tropics. There's a bit of irony in this: the varieties of sugar (and pineapple, and ...) that are now producing high-yield crops in 3rd world countries have been -- in many cases -- developed through decades of research by U.S. growers. As are many of the harvesting methods. Technology transfer that turned out perhaps too successful. There may be a moral in that for the computer industry as well ... -- Bob Cunningham {dual|vortex|ihnp4}!islenet!bob Honolulu, Hawaii
bob@islenet.UUCP (Bob Cunningham) (06/13/85)
Correction to my previous posting: > The 2 to 3 cents is probably for bulk, unrefined sugar (molasses), > F.O.B. various 3rd world countries. The $.21 a pound rate sounds > like the price for refined (granular) sugar F.O.B. some warehouse > in the U.S. Wrong. World sugar no. 11 futures run $.03-.04 per pound. Domestic sugar (no. 12) futures are just over $.21. That's all bulk, F.O.B. various places, though. The sugar import quotas do indeed keep sugar prices in the U.S. much higher than the world market. -- Bob Cunningham {dual|vortex|ihnp4}!islenet!bob Honolulu, Hawaii