Sugar prices and production and investment incentives

Friday, October 23, 2009
Print RSS Tweet This! Save this entry to my Favorites

World sugar prices are close to a 30 year high with values on the Chicago mercantile exchange hovering just under $30c per pound. For countries whose sugar exports account for a large proportion of their export earnings, the steep increase in world prices has brought about an improvement in their terms of trade and - because demand for many foodstuffs is price inelastic, a favourable change in their balance of trade. A good example of this is the African country of Mozambique, a nation almost destroyed by a long running civil war that eventually ended in the early 1990s but which has also been hit in recent years by severes drought hit many central and southern parts of the country, including previously flood-stricken areas. And where half of the population must survive on less than $1 a day. 

This BBC news article reports that Mozambique’s government is planning to almost double its annual sugar production following soaring sugar prices and an abundance of available arable land. Helped by free access to the lucrative EU single market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative, the issue is whether the sugar growing industry can scale up sufficiently to take advantage of a period of high prices to drive higher production, exports and lift average incomes for the thousands directly or indirectly employed by the sugar sector.

Sugar prices are inherently volatile and this poses big risks for investors in new capacity. Political risks and fluctuations in exchange rates must also be taken into account as Mozambique exports most of her sugar to European and American markets. In recent months the Mozambique currency has appreciated a little against the dollar which may make it slightly harder to sell sugar into US markets. But a weak currency against the Euro together with favourable trade arrangements is making Europe a good bet for a country desperate for higher foreign exchange earnings to boost her development.

Read more about the Everything but Arms Initiative here

Rated: 43211 (4/5), based on 8 reviews

Rate this article:   

Print RSS Tweet This!


ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER

Join over 4,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u Economics Resource Email newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops.

*  Your Email Address:
*  Preferred Format:
    AS/A2 Economics Board:
    GCSE Economics Board:
*  Country:
    Full Name:
    Job / Position:
    Postcode:
    School / College:
    Town / City:
*  Enter the security code shown:



Recent Threads on the Economics Teacher Discussion Forums:
Posts in: General Economics Teaching

Video Case-study - lunchtime prices slashed
Long Exam Example to Use for Revision Please?
Good hotel in London for school trip
Competitive Markets
Diminishing Returns
Complementary goods - HELP Please!
URgent Help Needed
Equilibrium concept
The price of life
Extended Project Qualification





Comments

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Most Popular Topic Tags on the Economics Blog

recession, demand, economics, price, unemployment, prices, inflation, investment, costs, profit, downturn, supply, trade, debt, employment, confidence, euro, gdp, competition, capacity, risk, production, china, oil, incentives, exports, expectations, housing, pay, manufacturing, sterling, food, profits, property, mortgage, tutor2u, globalisation, banks, revision, slowdown, borrowing, usa, retailers, emissions, deflation, airlines, innovation, dollar, supermarkets, entrepreneur, efficiency, monopsony, elasticity, aqa, welfare, consumption, economist, productivity, saving, google, keynes, opec, wealth, depression, moodle, depreciation, jobs, credit crunch, competitiveness, economic cycle, cars, externalities, stocks, infrastructure, environmental, strategy, tim harford, carbon, vle, monopoly, subsidy, evaluation, management, eu, losses, protectionism, spare capacity, inequality, environment, poverty, bank of england, budget deficit, construction, behavioural, wages, macroeconomics, carbon trading, steel, commodities, output gap, skills, japan, oligopoly, currencies, imports, bbc, stagflation, contestable, cpi, agflation, farming, newsnight, choices, regulation, survey, taxes, government failure, itunes, minimum wage, lse, climate change, paul mason, population, intervention, aviation, keynes society, amazon, fiscal stimulus, single market, pricing, dan ariely, nationalisation, cartel, pollution, eton college, interest rates, shareholder, london, rationality, redundancies, market failure, rpi, mpc, shipping, behavioural economics, germany, robert peston, india, rsa, reputation, quantitative easing, currency, facebook, income elasticity, stakeholders, current account, brazil, coffee, savings, microsoft, crowding out, monetary policy, barriers to entry, collapse, multiplier effect, suppliers, economies of scale, price discrimination, development, uk economy, quiz, apple, surplus, taxation, tesco, free, scrappage, labour market, behaviour, opportunity cost, tragedy of the commons, open source, vat, smoking, cost of living, poverty trap, growth, merger, speculation, edinburgh, ownership, discrimination, northern rock, global, cost benefit analysis, ireland, oecd, supply chain, shareholders, scarcity, balance of payments, petrol, liquidity, duopoly, etonomics, iphone, starbucks, trade deficit, happiness, budget, human capital, capital, subsidies, immigration, eurozone, takeover, exploitation, ecb, paradox of thrift, wiki, advertising, public sector, peter day, utility, wants, labour force survey, brand, tax, poland, iceland, blog, recovery, foreign exchange, indirect tax, european union, roger bootle, ocr economics, robert frank, heathrow, hbos, hotels, freight, creative destruction, federal reserve, kaletsky, price war, information failure, crude oil, spain,
All tags

Login to the tutor2u Moodle VLE

Get a daily email update of new resources on the Economics Blog

Discussion forums for Economics teachers

Follow tutor2u on Twitter

 Jim  | Geoff  | Others

Latest entries

Categories

Monthly Archives

Syndicate