Some Effects of EU Sugar Reforms on Development in Africa

The sugar industry is a major provider of jobs and income for sugar-exporting countries in Africa. The lower sugar prices that were caused by the recent liberalisation of the EU sugar market may not only jeopardise economic development in those countries, but the reforms also create difficulties for sugar-importing countries in Africa that seek to develop their sugar industries. The article analyses the effects of EU sugar market reforms on three African countries — Nigeria, South Africa and Mozambique — and provides insights into the balancing of the EU sugar policy’s intended effects against their adverse effects on European trade and development policy.

The beet sugar factory of the future

The beet sugar industry is facing several challenges for the future. The climate change is requiring a transition from the traditional fossil fuel to a greenhouse gas neutral energy source. The available possibilities for this purpose will be outlined in this paper. The recent EU sugar market reform has markedly increased the competition between sugar companies and the resulting lower sugar price has a significant impact on the profit margin of sugar production. In order to keep up with these challenges it is key to make an appropriate use of the available opportunities to improve the cost-efficiency of sugar beet processing. The different means to advance the sugar business are better asset utilization, continuous process improvement, introducing innovative process technologies and further developing a sugar factory into a biorefinery with a further valorisation of (co-)products and wherein synergy is obtained between different on-site process operations. Why and how these different available tools can improve the competitiveness of sugar factories will be discussed in detail. A proper combination and choice of the suggested changes and opportunities will enable sugar factories to get prepared for the future.

INTEGRATION OF THE DOMESTIC SUGAR MARKET INTO GLOBAL VALUE ADDED CHAINS

Topicality. An important condition for the development of the sugar market, as one of the strategic markets of Ukraine, is integration into international economic structures. One of the ways to solve the problems of integration is to ensure the export of sugar by creating distribution and logistics centers. Aim and tasks. The aim of the article is to develop proposals on possible ways to promote the integration of the Ukrainian sugar market into global value added chains, which will transform the existing chain and improve the relationship between different actors and change the inefficient direction of material and financial flows. Research results. The article contains the results of the research devoted to the substantiation of economic interests of the subjects of LCSM and the peculiarities of their interaction. In the work on the example of the Ukrainian sugar market the peculiarities of the formation of structures of logistics chains, their general and different characteristics, inefficient links in the market chain have been identified. The existing structural construction of LCSM has been considered and diagnostics of efficiency of its functioning has been carried out. In the context of the integration of LCSM of Ukraine into the global sugar market, the expediency of its transformation by including a new link in the form of a distribution and logistics center (sugar terminal) has been substantiated. Conclusion. The transformed LCSM provides an opportunity to improve the relationship between the subjects of different links and change the inefficient direction of material and financial flows for a gradual transition to the movement of material flow through the distribution and logistics center. In the course of the research the organizational mechanism of LCSM integration has been offered taking into account the interests of internal and external chains of the global market.

The Destruction of Social Capital In Indonesia

Background: Business failure in the economic system causes various economicactors to potentially become rent-seekers in an imperfect political system. Sugar isan agricultural commodity that, thus far, is a public good that needs governmentregulation. This study aims to determine the social capital of Indonesia's sugarinterest groups and to determine the dominant variable in Indonesia's sugarindustry. Materials and Methods: This research uses a type of explanatory researchthat has a high relationship level because it not only has independent andcomparative values but also serves to explain and predict the relationship with aqualitative approach between variables. Relationship analysis using DecisionExplorer version 3.3 software. Results: analysis of the relationship of and variablein the sugar industry, the more variables involved in the loop, the most importantrelationship between variables in the loop, the most important loop is loop 4consisting of economic rent, the refined sugar market, entrepreneurs in food andbeverage, lobbying, government. Conclusion: It is concluded from the findings ofthis study that the social capital of Indonesia's sugar interest groups consists of 9loops, Almost every variable has a weak strength to social capital and leads todamage.

International Market Integration and Competitiveness of Indian Sugar

Globalization and liberalization policies facilitated national and international commodity markets to integrate with each other. This integration facilitated price transmission and market efficiency of commodities at domestic markets, leading traders across the globe to exploit opportunities. India is one of the vibrant and emerging economies in the world absorbing these economic features and integrating its markets with the world. This article, focusing on the Indian sugar market, explores market integration of sugar prices with the US, UK and global average prices and also contributes a policy dimension to enhance the competitiveness of the Indian sugar sector. The article, using Johansen’s co-integration with a vector error correction model (VECM), finds the existence of market integration of Indian sugar prices with international prices. However, the average Indian sugar prices are higher than those in other markets, with the support of government price protection policies. These higher prices motivated to increase sugar production in the country. The lower cane prices of Brazil, Australia and Thailand pose challenges in international markets for Indian sugar. Despite this, the Indian sugar sector has a competitive advantage in becoming a great energy source by focusing on ethanol production, which would lead to reducing its international dependency for oil supplies. In addition, the sector can also contribute to rural socio-economic development through adopting technology to produce other by-products rather than merely concentrating on sugar.

DINAMIKA AGROINDUSTRI GULA INDONESIA: TINJAUAN ANALISIS SISTEM

AbstrakAgroindustri gula memiliki peran yang penting dan strategis bagi ekonomi masyarakat Indonesia sejak zaman penjajahan Belanda sampai dengan saat ini. Produksi gula mengalami stagnasi sejak tahun 1994, ditandai dengan produksi yang menurun sementara permintaan terus bergerak naik. Sementara itu, impor gula terus dilakukan dan cenderung meningkat seiring dengan permintaan yang terus bertambah. Artikel ini menganalisis kompleksitas persoalan yang mengakibatkan berbagai dinamika dalam agroindustri gula terutama stagnasi produksi gula nasional. Metode yang digunakan adalah dengan menggunakan pendekatan analisis sistem berdasarkan data sekunder dan literatur mengenai berbagai indikator yang terkait dengan agroindustri gula. Hasil pembahasan menunjukan bahwa dinamika agroindustri gula Indonesia yang cenderung mengalami kemunduran diakibatkan oleh inefisensi usahatani tebu, inefisiensi usaha pabrik gula/PG, dan distorsi oleh pasar gula internasional. Inefisiensi usahatani tebu berdampak langsung kepada inefisiensi PG dalam rantai agroindustri gula. Sementara itu, persoalan kompetisi penggunaan lahan antara tanaman padi dan tebu secara tidak langsung berimplikasi kepada inefisiensi PG. Inefisiensi agroindustri gula kemudian menjadi lebih kompleks dengan adanya distorsi harga gula di pasar internasional yang menjatuhkan harga gula dunia. Guna mengatasi dinamika persoalan di atasm pengembangan industri tebu sebaiknya dilakukan oleh pihak swasta dengan mengoptimalkan lahan pertanian di luar Jawa.Kata Kunci: tebu, analisis sistem, impor gula, usahatani, hargaAbstractSugar agroindustry has an important and strategic role for Indonesia since from the Dutch colonial era until present. Sugar production has been stagnating since 1994, indicated by decreasing production while demand continues to rise. Meanwhile, sugar import continues and tended increasing in line with growing demand. This article analyses the problems complexity of that have resulted various dynamics in sugar agroindustry, especially the stagnation of national sugar production. The method used is a systems analysis approach which based on secondary data and literature review on various indicators related to sugar agroindustry. The result show that the dynamics of Indonesia's sugar agroindustry which tends to decline caused by inefficiency in sugarcane farming, inefficiency of sugar factories/PG, and distortion by the international sugar market. Inefficiency in sugarcane farming has a direct impact on the inefficiency of PG in the sugar agroindustry chain. Meanwhile, the issue of land use competition between rice and sugar cane, indirectly has implications for PG inefficiency. Sugar agroindustry inefficiency then became more complex with the distortion of sugar prices on the international market which dropped international sugar prices. In order to overcome the problems, the development of sugarcane industry should be carried out by private sector by optimizing agricultural land outside Java.Keywords: sugarcane, system analysis, imported sugar, farming, price

The moderating role of firm size and interest rate in capital structure of the firms: selected sample from sugar sector of Pakistan

The selection of financing is a top priority for businesses, particularly in short- and long-term investment decisions. Mixing debt and equity leads to decisions on the financial structure for businesses. This research analyzes the moderate position of company size and the interest rate in the capital structure over six years (2013–2018) for 29 listed Pakistani enterprises operating in the sugar market. This research employed static panel analysis and dynamic panel analysis on linear and nonlinear regression methods. The capital structure included debt to capital ratio, non-current liabilities, plus current liabilities to capital as a dependent variable. Independent variables were profitability, firm size, tangibility, Non-Debt Tax Shield, liquidity, and macroeconomic variables were exchange rates and interest rates. The investigation reported that profitability, firm size, and Non-Debt Tax Shield were significant and negative, while tangibility and interest rates significantly and positively affected debt to capital ratio. This means the sugar sector has greater financial leverage to manage the funding obligations for the better performance of firms. Therefore, the outcomes revealed that the moderators have an important influence on capital structure.

Cointegration Analysis of the World’s Sugar Market: The Existence of the Long-term Equilibrium

This paper addresses the issue of interconnection among major sugar markets and commodity/exchange stocks in different parts of the world using the Johansen cointegration approach and vector error correction model. Due to a high degree of sugar market fragmentation and corresponding diversity in price levels and its volatility in different regions, the results of our analysis sheds some light on the very fact of a ‘single’ global sugar market existence and can be important not just with regard to producers and buyers of sugar but for the international investors as well, both in the light of risk governance and maximizing profitability. Using the evaluation of the extent of connection among regional sugar markets, one can assess potential benefits available to investors through international diversification between the analyzed markets. Our analysis has revealed the presence of mutual interaction among the selected sugar markets/commodity stock exchanges in individual regions and confirmed the long-term equilibrium among them. Therefore, despite an obvious diversity in price level and their fluctuations in different world regions, the selected for the analysis regional sugar markets are acting together as a single organism. The determining of the extent to which the analyzed sugar markets are interconnected have significantly strengthen the understanding of the latest sugar price developmental trends. In addition, the results of this study opened space and mapped out clear objectives and measurable targets for potential research – to reveal what markets can be referred to as leading ones in a sense that namely they primarily serve as a source of price turbulence. In summary, our results revealed and confirmed the long-term equilibrium among them and the outcomes of this study opened the new research realms and identified the clear and measurable targets for the future empirical research in this field.