SUGAR: Beet sugar production for the 2016/17 October-September fiscal year is projected at 5.090 million short tons, raw value (STRV). Early planting of the 2016/17 sugarbeet crop implies above-average yields and a larger proportion of the crop harvested in August and September prior to the start of the coming fiscal year. The estimate for 2015/16 beet sugar production is raised to 5.064 million STRV. Cane sugar production for 2016/17 is projected at 3.620 million STRV. Projections for Florida and Louisiana assume trend yields and the same area harvested as the previous year. Production in Texas is projected the same as 2015/16, and Hawaii is projected at 40,000 STRV for the 3 months of processing before the mill closure at the end of the calendar year.
Sugar imports for 2016/17 are projected at 3.479 million STRV. Total TRQ imports are projected at 1.531 million STRV, the sum of the WTO TRQs less a shortfall projected at 99,208, as well as imports under several Free Trade Agreements with sugar import provisions. Re-export imports are projected at 175,000 STRV, imports from Mexico at 1.758 million, and high-tier tariff imports at 15,000.
Deliveries for human consumption for 2016/17 are projected at 12.080 million STRV, an increase of 0.7 percent relative to 2015/16. The estimate of 2015/16 deliveries is increased by 45,000 STRV to 12.0 million based on share-to-date analysis of deliveries of sugar processed in the United States and expected direct consumption imports.
Mexico sugar production for 2016/17 is projected at 6.1 million metric tons (MT), slightly below the estimate of 6.184 million for 2015/16. Sugar deliveries for human consumption are projected at 4.398 million MT, slightly above 2015/16. Sugar deliveries for Mexico’s sugar-containing products export program (IMMEX) are projected at 254,717 MT, the same level now projected for 2015/16 after Mexico cut off duty-free imports from the United States that benefitted from the U.S. re-export import program. Exports to the United States are projected at 1.505 million MT, as per the limit set in the December 2014 Countervailing Duty Suspension Agreement.
Source :USDA WASDE