Sugar futures on ICE advanced to 18.5 cents per pound, hovering around three-week highs amid poor weather conditions, a strong Brazilian real, and large reported amounts of bargain-buying and short-covering from commodity funds. Earlier in August, sugar futures plummeted to their lowest in one year after Brazilian state-owned Petrobras cut gasoline prices twice in the span of three weeks, accumulating to an 8.6% decrease in the gasoline price on the month. On top of that, the rise in costs of living ahead of the upcoming election drove the Brazilian government to postpone its compliance with renewable fuel targets, further pressuring demand for biofuels. The consequent downturn in ethanol prices will make biofuel blending less profitable, swinging the allocation of sugarcane for producers to crush sugar instead.
Historically, Sugar reached an all time high of 65.20 in November of 1974. Sugar - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on August of 2022.
Sugar is expected to trade at 18.25 Cents/LB by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 17.24 in 12 months time.