Sugar is a commodity which is constantly in big demand and lower supply. It 
can easily be sold at normal market prices (in fact it is usually pre-sold for years in advance). As such it is unrealistic to expect bulk discounts way below market price. We work with real suppliers, and real prices. Our suppliers prefer long term, steady contracts but ocasionally will also do spot orders at higher prices.
I would like to say a few words about “suppliers” who claim to be able to sell gigantic multi million ton contracts of Icumsa 45 at extremely low prices. Those are fantasies and no supplier in Brazil will have the capability to process them. Even if they could, there is no port here in Brazil to receive such quantity of ships per month, so the shipping timeline would fail resulting in a huge disaster for both sides. Brazilian icumsa 45 sugar production for 2006/2007 was around 29.245.000 MT. Not all of this went to export as Brazil also has domestic needs. The problem with large multi million ton orders is that the logistics for them are unrealistic to Brazil’s infrastructure. We still pull the sugar from the mills to the ports in trucks driving on poorly conditioned roads instead of trains; which would be much cheaper and faster. There is also, obviously, port loading power which is not that good. So, I tell you from experience, anything above 300,000 MT per month, is very, very difficult due to Brazil’s infrastructural problems.
We encounter Sugar buyers who are seduced by absurdly low prices offered in various FCOs, floating around on the internet, some are reflecting real market prices from long ago, and others are pure scam attempts.
I would like to mention that in this industry there are hundreds of thousands of agents, brokers and re-sellers who are trading sugar from their home. Hundreds of new “agents” are drawn to the business daily in hopes of securing huge commissions based on large orders. 99% of these traders will never achieve a signle successful deal because although they can set out with good intentions, they do not know how to close a deal from start to finish - most do not even know how to start a deal correctly, let alone bring it to a final conclusion. When they get contacted by a buyer (who is usually just another agent) they often find out that their “supplier” is actually another missinformed agent who thinks he is in direct contact with the real supplier, who again turns out to be another agent, and so on. These agents usually give up after a few months of trying, but by then they are replaced by thousands of new ones who hope to get rich on the lucrative sugar trading business. However this is not the main problem.. these agents are ”trading” with unverified offers. Many of these offers have been orbiting the planet for years.
Example: an offer may have originally been a real and reliable trade opportunity which then got altered, sanitized, un-sanitized, by every other trader whose hand it fell in, passed by email, fax, post, and fax again through hundreds of hands, uploaded to a BBS in 1993, posted on Newsgroups in 1995, saved to a hard disk untill one broker, down on his luck dug it up and not understanding the time-limited nature of any offer and quote, re-used it in the desperate attempt to find a buyer, then it was posted and downloaded again, and again, and again, etc…
This obviously creates problems for the sugar industry as the buyers are tossed around from deal to deal, chasing unrealistic prices and losing months of time or even getting scammed before they realize that there is no sugar. If the price is too good to be true, then it most certainly is.
Contact us for a Sugar Quote
Please understand that we get many enquiries from potential buyers daily. 99% of them turn out to be missguided “agents” who know someone, who knows someone else who has a potential buyer, who then turns out to not be able or willing to perform. Please verify your buyer before contacting us further. If you wish to proceed, please contact us through the below form and let us know your detailed requirements. We will get back to you shortly