Written by Joseph Akwiri | From Reuters

African sugar producers on Tuesday sought ways to increase trade of the commodity on the continent to survive falling world prices and the end of duty-free access to the European Union.

Sugar prices on the global market especially in the European Union (EU), Africa’s biggest external market, have fallen sharply over the last years due to oversupply, and African producers are seeking new markets to cushion themselves.

The EU, which allowed a duty free market to many African producers, decided last year to end sugar quotas in 2017, and its internal prices are expected to fall significantly.

“The world market is going to be very volatile,” Alan Wood, American Sugar Holdings (ASR Group) Head of Global Commodities, told Reuters at the fourth Africa Sugar Conference in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa.

“We have had four years in a row where supply has exceeded demand. When prices are low, people roduce less.”

Africa produces 14 million tonnes of Sugar annually, lower than its 19 million tonne consumption rate, according to the International Sugar Organisation, and experts at the conference argued that was a perfect opportunity for the continent to trade with itself, to compensate for the deficit.

African sugar producers who export to the EU are extremely concerned they will be hurt by its decision to end sugar quotas.

Read more at Reuters