Cheap Sugar

In both security and commercial markets, one of the least "sweet" commodities just now is sugar. Like other industries artificially expanded during the War, the sugar business, particularly in Cuba, is due for deflation. The "grinding season" in Cuba, when the cane is crushed and the liquors extracted, is now at about its end, and estimates of production can be made. Apparently more cane was handled than ever before, and plantings of the new crop promise to exceed even those of this year. Except for the U. S. beet sugar industry, the same general situation of excessive production exists throughout the sugar world. As a result, sugar prices, though temporarily held up by the canning and preserving season this summer, threaten to continue in the doldrums for some time.

Sugar refineries have in the meantime been operating practically at capacity, with the result that they have accumulated large stocks of refined sugar. This heavy surplus tends of course to keep prices low for the raw as well as the refined product.

Sugar consumption, however, is steadily increasing in the U. S. In the eight months ending Aug. 31 about 3,755,000 tons of refined sugar were consumed in the U. S., against 3,540,000 tons for the same eight months of 1924. Actual consumption in 1924 was 4,854,479 tons, while estimated consumption for 1925 is 5,450,000. The year 1922 still holds the record of sugar consumption at 5,092,758 tons.