The estimates for this year?s sugar crop still have to be confirmed but the stakeholders are far from optimistic. With 500,000 tons, the harvest could be the worst of the five past years and will not even meet the demand for export on the international market.

The estimate committee made it clear that these are still provisional calculations. ?We prefer to wait for the last estimates at the end of September to give a formal statement on this issue.? Not only could sugar production benefit from a better sugarcane tonnage but the climatic conditions could also be more favourable to the crop within the next month.

But for the time being, sugar cane is not up to expectations. In June already, the committee had forecast quite a low production of sugar. But with estimates of about 530,000 tons, they were ahead of the present forecasts. The ?high rainfall? recorded in July and the ?bad weather? in August were not favourable to the ripening of sugar cane. Hence ?the sugar cane weighs less and has a lower sugar content than expected?. For the president of the Mauritius Sugar Producers Association (MSPA), Jacques d?Unienville, such low estimates are also due to the decrease in the crop area.

If estimates are proved right, the production will be 20,000 tons less than what is needed to meet the demands of the international market. In view of such a difficult situation, the Sugar Syndicate is already studying ways of getting out of trouble. It could resort to the ?extended delivery? process to meet the EU quota which means it will take from its 2007 harvest to compensate the present loss. But it would resort to such a process only if the bad news is confirmed at the end of September as it can only be requested at the end of the harvest when the final statistics are available.

As for the local market, Mauritius has already ordered ?20,000 tons of sugar from South Africa? as revealed by the chief executive officer of the Sugar Syndicate, Jean-Noël Humbert. In fact the country launched an international tender invitation for the supply of 40,000 tons of sugar. The rest of the order will now depend on the final harvest tonnage at the end of the month.