“Do you remember the salt crisis? I stocked up before the sugar price went up.” “I bought 10 bags of 15 kg of sugar.”
These are articles related to sugar prices recently posted on the self-employed online community. Concerned that international sugar prices, which are already soaring, will rise further on the news that India, the world’s major sugar exporter, will ban sugar exports, they are buying sugar. It is to secure sugar in advance, which can be stored for a long time and is often used as an ingredient in food.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO ), the international sugar price index soared to 157.2 in May, the highest since October 2011 (the index with 2014-16 as 100). After that, it turned to a downward trend, but in July it was 146.3, the highest since March 2012. This sugar price level is significantly higher than the price of other major agricultural products such as vegetable oil (129.8), grain (125.9), meat (117.8), and milk (116.3).
Anxiety over inflation has grown as prices of major foodstuffs essential to the lives of the working class, such as salt and sugar, fluctuated one after another. In particular , there is a fear of ‘Sugar Flation ( Sugar + inflation )’ , in which the price of industrial products such as bread, cookies, beverages, and ice cream that use a lot of sugar rises at the same time .
Tanghulu merchants, who have recently emerged as a popular snack among young people, are also worried. This is because the main ingredient in Tanghulu is sugar. Mr. Lee (39), who runs a Tanghulu shop in Mapo-gu, Seoul, said, “To continue the Tanghulu craze, we need스포츠토토 to keep the price range low, but I’m worried that if the price of sugar rises,the price of the product will also be stimulated.” Furu store owners also often buy sugar in advance.”
Concerns that sugar prices will rise further came as news came out that India, the world’s second-largest sugar producer, was considering banning sugar exports. Earlier, Reuters reported, citing Indian sources, that the Indian government plans to ban all sugar exports from October. It is the first time in seven years that India has completely banned sugar exports. The Indian government has been controlling sugar exports since May last year. Exports, which had reached 10 million tons a year, were reduced to 8 million tons. From October this year, we plan to ban exports altogether.
India’s move to ban sugar exports stemmed from growing concerns over production disruptions as sugar cane, the raw material for sugar, is suffering from drought. According to the Indian government’s meteorological data, rainfall this year in the western states of Maharashtra and southern Karnataka, which are the main producers of sugar cane, is half of the previous year. India’s August rainfall will be the lowest since 1901, meteorologists predict.
However, the government believes that the impact of India’s sugar export ban on domestic sugar prices will not be significant. Korea relies on most of its raw sugar and sugar imports from Australia and Thailand. Between 2018 and 2022, South Korea imported an average of 1.83 million tons of raw sugar, of which 1.063 million tons (58.1%) were imported from Australia and 454,000 tons (24.8%) from Thailand. An average of 108,000 tons of sugar was imported between 2018 and 2022, of which Thailand accounted for the largest share with 83,000 tons (76.4%).
The fact that the tax rate (5%) and the basic tax rate (3%) for raw sugar were each reduced to 0% for the remainder of the sugar quota tariff until the end of the year is also the reason why the domestic impact is expected to be insignificant. The government applied quota tariffs to stabilize the price of imported sugar through the diversification of imports from the sugar industry.
An industry insider said, “The share of sugar in the manufacturing cost of food products such as bread and snacks is only about 10%, so the impact of a rise in sugar price will not be large.” We are watching the atmosphere to see if there will be a negative aftermath.”