More expensive sugar poses threat to food inflation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pursuing an aggressive biofuel programme that will see more sugar cane diverted to make ethanol.

Sugar, consumed in everything from chocolate to fizzy drinks and baked products, is becoming ever more expensive, raising costs for the industry and keeping up pressure on global food inflation.

Prices of refined sugar surged to the highest in more than a decade this week, and are on track to jump about 11% in March, the most for a month since 2021. The raw variety, meanwhile, is hovering near its most expensive level in over six years. Global supplies are becoming tighter, mainly because India, one of the world’s top shippers, is cutting exports after rains hurt the sugar cane crop and as the country diverts more of the sweetener to make biofuel.