The European Union will regain its place as a net-sugar exporter for the first time in over a decade, after the removal of limits on production this year, US officials said.
The 2017-18 marketing year will see the EU sugar market throw off the 50-year old shackles of production and export limits.
"As a consequence, the EU sweetener market enters a new era with likely increased market volatility for the next few years until the different EU industries find new market equilibrium," said the US Department of Agriculture's bureau in Brussels.
And the bureau warned that further volatility could come to the market, with the exit of the United Kingdom from the bloc in two years' time.
EU sugar production is expected to jump by 2.1m tonnes in 2017-18, to a record 18.6m tonnes, the bureau said.
"The beet processors are aiming at lowering their cost of production for beet sugar by optimizing beet and sugar processing capacity without significant additional investments."
Source: www.agrimoney.com