São Paulo – Transport costs have caused Brazil to lose an order of approximately 300,000 tonnes of raw sugar to India. The order was placed by the AL Khaleej refinery in Dubai. According to traders quoted by the Reuters news agency this Friday (1st), freight costs, a good crop in 2012, and the depreciated Indian rupee have made the Indian product more attractive than the Brazilian. The former is the second leading, and the latter is the leading sugar producing country in the world.
To ship the sugar from India to Dubai, a buyer spends an average of US$ 30 per tonne. Shipping from Brazil costs US$ 50 per tonne, on average.
The cost of the Indian product is also lower, according to Reuters, because the country is nearer Dubai than Brazil, and because taxes are lower. The Al Khaleej refinery processes up to 2 million tonnes of sugar per year. The refinery distributes the refined sugar domestically and exports it to Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
