Brazil grows the world’s sugar — so why does almost none of it reach Ireland?

Brazil’s sugar powerhouse shows what Europe is missing in biofuel aspirations, Irish Examiner Farming editor Rachel Martin reports from Brazil

Sugarcane harvesting in Brazil.

Brazil grows more than half the world’s traded sugar — and yet you’d do well to find even a spoonful of it, relatively speaking, in Ireland.

At 56% of global exports, Brazil is the undisputed giant of the sugar trade — producing up to 40 million tonnes a year, a figure the country is on a mission to double within the next 15 years.