UAE's annual sugar consumption reaches 250,000 tonnes with a growth of 3%
Top officials during the 7th edition of The Dubai Sugar Conference 2023 in Dubai. Photo by Haitham Elkhatim/ Al Khaleej
Sajjad Ahmad, Deputy Business Editor
Sugar industry leaders and stakeholders have discussed opportunities and challenges the sector is facing at the 7th edition of the Dubai Sugar Conference 2023.
The event opened its doors to the public on Monday and will run until March 2, 2023, at the Intercontinental Hotel - Dubai Festival City.
Jamal Al Ghurair, Managing Director of the 'Al Khaleej Sugar' company, said "the demand for sugar in the UAE began to grow during the last quarter of 2022 by 3%, estimating the volume of domestic consumption at about 250,000 tonnes annually."
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the conference, Al Ghurair said,"the UAE imports about 95% of are raw sugar from Brazil. The UAE imports only 5 per cent of refined sugar from India."
He added,"the market for sweetened products in the UAE has adapted to the excise tax."
About the current challenges the industry is facing, he said,"dumping by India in the local market represents the biggest challenge for the UAE industry at present, indicating that India is supporting its industry, while sugar exporters consider the UAE market a profitable one."
Al Ghurair called for similar treatment of countries that impose protective duties on Emirati products, especially some countries in Europe that impose fees of up to 400 euros on a ton of Emirati sugar, while India requires approval from its government to allow the entry of Emirati sugar.
He said, "Al-Khaleej Sugar" refinery in Dubai, which is the largest independent sugar refinery in the world, is currently operating with a capacity of only 40% of its current total production capacity of about 1.5 million tonnes annually, due to India dumping its sugar products on the local market, while "Al-Khaleej Sugar" directs Only 20% of its production is for the local market, while 80% is exported to the Gulf countries, East African countries and a number of countries in Europe.
He pointed out that global sugar prices rose by about 30% due to high demand and low supply, ruling out the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and shipping on global prices.
He explained, during the conference, which witnessed that the sugar market in the UAE is characterized by stability, as it does not witness large increases in consumption, and that the market is growing at a slight rate according to the population increase and not due to other factors.
Al Ghurair said that the "Canal Sugar" project, which is partially owned by the company in Egypt, has completed experimental production operations and will start actual production after the month of Ramadan at 20% of the factory's operational capacity in the first phase, which ranges between 150 and 200 thousand tons of sugar annually. Gradually to reach the target production volume estimated at approximately 900,000 metric tonnes annually.
He added that "Canal Sugar" in Egypt has recently finished cultivating about 32,000 feddans of sugar beets, while it intends to raise the cultivated area to about 180,000 feddans (77,000 hectares) with obtaining licenses from the Egyptian government, noting that Al-Qanat Sugar will be the largest factory. for beet sugar in the world considering the Egyptian government providing the necessary infrastructure for the project.
During the conference, the participants reviewed the promotion of sustainability processes and achieving a global balance between supply and demand for sugar, the latest developments in Brazil, India, the Middle East and North Africa region, the European Union, Pakistan and China, and production developments on demand.
The participants also reviewed their vision of sugar taxes and the impact of the use of modern technologies on the industry.
For his part, Jacob Robbins, founder and CEO of the global "Emeterra" company said: "The global sugar industry and trade is still suffering to varying degrees from the impact of the "Covid-19" epidemic, and some markets are also suffering from the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis, Russia and Ukraine, to varying degrees. higher than its levels in 9 years".
Robbins added "global fertiliser prices are still relatively high, while headline inflation and food price inflation have caused systemic shocks to many global economies."
