White Papers CTRM for Sugar – Managing Sugar’s Complexity | Page 7

CTRM for Sugar - Managing Sugar’s Complexity

A ComTechAdvisory Whitepaper

Sugar is a complex commodity. It is traded at different geographical and functional markets and in these markets traders, merchandisers and consumers all value and use different
specifications. Raw sugar is priced based on terminal markets,
but in pricing and settlement, the purity of the non-refined sugar is a key price denominator. Purity of raw sugar can measured with a spectrometer and is determined by the degree of
polarization. The Polarization Premium is an important aspect
of the raw sugar price. White sugar is traded at a premium over
raw sugar and different types of white sugar have different premiums.

Global Sugar Supply and Demand - USDA

PHYSICAL SUGAR TRADING - THE
COMMODITIES TRADED
As sugar is a processed commodity rather then a harvested commodity, sugar is traded in one of its processed forms. Trading and price formation requires
references and standards and, over the years a set of
quality standards were formed. Additional price formation complexity originates from the need of the global
sugar consumption industries to set their own product
specifications (e.g. Coca Cola spec) and the market
increasingly moving from bulk to containerized logistics and trade.

THE SUGAR COMMODITY COMPLEX

• Raw Sugar
• Refined Sugar
• Refined Sugar - Fine Granulated
• White Crystal Sugar
• Crystal
Muscavado
• Demerara
• Caster
Icing
• Premium Liquid Sugar

• Fine Liquid Sugar
Invert

When it comes to quality and specifications, the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis is the provider
of the ICUMSA standards and an ICUMSA rating is an international unit for expressing the purity of the sugar in solution, and is
directly related to the color of the sugar.

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 hite Refined

Sugar - ICUMSA 45
 A
 highly refined sugar product, Icumsa 45 is easily
recognizable by its distinctive sparkling white color
and pure sucrose taste. It is considered to be the
world’s leading consumer sugar that possesses a
standard by which other types of sugar are measured against.


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- ICUMSA 100
 Icumsa 100 is refined sugar that has a lower grade
and lower production cost than Icumsa 45. Having
a light white color, this kind of sugar does not possess the visual appeal of sparkling white Icumsa 45,
however, Icumsa 100 is still a food grade sugar that
is safe for human consumption.

© Commodity Technology Advisory LLC, 2016, All Rights Reserved.

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