Mexico Says Higher Sugar Production Lowers Need to Import

Mexico, the world’s sixth-largest sugar producer, won’t extend a quota to import 250,000 tons of sugar, said the Economy Ministry.

Rising domestic sugar production makes it “unnecessary to extend the reassignment of the import quota,” the ministry said today in the Nation’s official gazette. The ministry didn’t say how many tons had been purchased for imports.

On Feb. 7, Mexico approved a quota to import 250,000 tons of sugar as dry weather hurt domestic output. Mexico created sugar import quotas in August 2009 after domestic prices reached a high of about 730 pesos ($57) per 50-kilogram bag on Sept. 14. Mexico’s sugar industry is regulated by the government, which sets import quotas.

White sugar for August delivery dropped $12.90, or 2.7 percent, to $459 a ton today on the Liffe Exchange in London.

--Editors: Robin Saponar, Jessica Brice

source: businessweek