THECUBAREVIEW 31 



SUGAR REVIEW 



specially written for THE CUBA REVIEW by Willett & Gray, New York. 



Our last letter was dated October 29tli. Since tliat time all interest in the market 

 has been centered on the new crop Cuban position, particularly as all old crop sugars 

 have been allocated and disposed of by the Eciualization Board. With the 1918-1& 

 Cuba crop outturuing only 3,971,776 tons, and a few sugars unaccounted for, there 

 is a shortage of about 50,000 tons in the supply of sugar that was naturally coimted 

 on by the Equalization Board, and owing to this shortage some readjustment has to 

 be made in the amount of sugar which our refiners will be able to melt from now 

 to the end of the year when the Equalization Board retires from control of the sugar 

 situation. New crop Cubas have shown a consistent advance since our last report, 

 but occasionally there have been interruptions to the upward trend, owing to reports 

 emanating from different departments in Washington, and which have been more or 

 less elaborated on by the press. One of the above-mentioned reports was quoted in 

 the press recently as coming from the Department of Justice and stating that the 

 Department of Justice was going to control sugar during 1920 much the same as in 

 1919. While this report was not believed by the trade generally, nevertheless it 

 caused much uncertainty to holders, and business in new crop sugars came to a 

 standstill. However, later advices from the Department of Justice at Washington 

 confirmed only the report that the Food Administration powers had been conferred 

 on the Department of Justice by Proclamation of the President. With the matter 

 of control of new crop sugars out of the way, business was again resumed in sugars 

 and quotations at this writing are sellers at 8%c for all positions from February ta 

 June. There has been a slight buying interest at 8%c recently, but this interest 

 has since disappeared and Sc is about the best price obtainable. All the above quota- 

 tions are f. o. b. Cul>a. 



The advance in new crop sugars has been maintained chiefiy by what one of our 

 refiners called "nervous manufacturers." The manufacturers referred to are not 

 refiners, but are those making candy, bakers' supplies, canned goods, etc. These 

 people during the past two years at times have been unable to obtain their full sugar 

 supplies, and it looks as if they were going to take no chance on the future, but were 

 endeavoring to secure their sugar wants for the first sis months of next year. They 

 have been constantly in the market and have paid quite high prices for sugars for 

 the shipments mentioned above. Refiners on the other hand have shown but little 

 interest in the situation, as they appear to realize that during the height of produc- 

 tion of sugar in Cuba, sugars will be produced so rapidly that it will be beyond the 

 capacity of our refiners to turn into refined sugar, and they apparently see a chance 

 of obtaining sugars somewhat below the prices at which manufacturers are willing- 

 to pay for these sugars. 



There has been much dissatisfaction in connection with the price at which our 

 domestic beet and cane supplies could be sold and while at one time beet granulated 

 was selling at 10c f. o. b. factory this price was later increased to 10 ^/^c. However,^ 

 on the settlement of this price the Louisiana cane people stated that they could not 

 produce sugar for 10 %c owing to a disaster to their crop, the outturn of which will 

 reach only 12.5,000 tons, and they stated that unless they could obtain a price at which 

 they could make some profit it was no use for them to manufacture sugar at all. 

 Exerting considerable pressure upon officials Louisiana has finally been able to- 

 obtain a price of 18c for their Plantation Granulated, 17.60c for their Choice Clarified 

 and 17c for their Prime Yellow Clarified. The beet producers naturally became dis- 

 satisfied at this and, of course, further negotiations were opened with Washington 

 to ol)tain a better price than lOi/^c for beets. The matter appears to be settled at 

 12c per lb. f. o. b. factories for domestic beet sugars. 



The refined situation has continued unchanged, but owing to the shortage ii* 



