Sugar prices drop by 25% in Saudi markets

Sugar prices have recently dropped by 25 percent in local markets due to the fall of global prices, dealers told local media.
Yusuf Al-Qifari, CEO of Othaim Markets, meanwhile, said some of supermarkets are offering discounts for certain sugar products where the price gap may reach 30 percent between these and other brand names.
Some disparity in sugar prices has been reported in global markets in recent months where the markets witnessed the lowest decline of 30 percent, he was quoted as saying.
He said sugar prices are associated with food product prices at global markets which are normally affected by many factors, whether political or economic, and governed by supply-demand mechanism.
Foodstuff dealer Fahad Al-Ghamdi said sugar prices witnessed a big drop during the third quarter of the current year adding that many of wholesale dealers and hypermarkets are offering big discounts on a variety of commodities including sugar.
He attributed the price fall to the presence of huge surpluses of sugar in the producing and exporting countries which led to a decline of prices at the global level and, automatically, reflected in Saudi markets.
He said the price of a five-kg bag of Osra brand had dropped from SR 23 to SR 19.50 whereas the 10-kg bag of the same brand fell from SR 38 to SR 30. The 10-kg bag of Ba’ashin brand dropped to SR 30 from SR 40 whereas the 50-kg bag of the same brand fell from SR 200 to SR 142, he noted.
He predicted that sugar prices will remain stabilized in the next months up to the end of the first quarter of the new year (2014) due to the availability of huge stocks of sugar at global and local markets.
On the other hand, Duty Manager at Tamimi Markets Shibl Al-Naimi said sugar in Saudi markets is originally raw sugar being re-fined, packed at different sizes and sold in the local markets at prices consistent with global prices.
Saudi markets have big stocks (reserves) quite enough to meet needs for several months to come and sugar prices are poised to experience a state of stability during the next months or even may register further fall, he was quoted as saying.
Majority of sugar consumed in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries is of Brazilian origin.
The Kingdom imports 80 percent of its needs from that country and its domestic consumption stands at 1.2 million tons per year, dealers and experts said.