USDA Raises Domestic Sugar Stocks Outlook, Reduces Mexican Import Forecast

(Agriculture.com) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Thursday raised its outlook for domestic sugar stocks as it sharply reduced its forecast for imports from Mexico for 2019/20.

The USDA put the closely watched stocks-to-use ratio at 13.5 for 2019/2020 compared to its forecast of 12.4 last month. The department in its monthly report increased its production outlook for the year to 9.260 million short tons (8.4 million tonnes) from the 9.138 tons seen last month on higher cane output from Louisiana.

The USDA also sharply reduced its forecast for Mexican imports in 2019/20 to 969,000 tons from the 1.418 million tons forecasted last month.

The USDA’s July report sets the preliminary quota for Mexico’s exports to the United States.

“Imports from Mexico are decreased by 449,263 STRV (short tons raw value), while total TRQ (tariff rate quota) imports are increased by 187,393 STRV on the announcement of the additional specialty sugar TRQ,” the USDA said.

The U.S. government last month announced that it was reallocating 100,071 tons of sugar for the year because a number of countries said they did not plan to fill their volumes.

The stocks to use ratio for 2018/19, meanwhile, was raised to 14.3 from 12.4 in the June report, as imports for the year were seen 216,138 tons higher than forecasted last month.