The price of sugar in the European Union rose by 61 percent year-on-year in March. Sugar is thus one of the foods that have risen in price the most, according to the EU statistical office Eurostat. The price of sugar rose the most in the Czech Republic. Its price increased by 98 percent year-on-year. On the contrary, sugar became the least expensive in Hungary. According to analysts, the main reason behind the high prices of sugar is the rise in gas prices, which sugarcane consumes in large quantities during production.
Sugar started to become more expensive in the Union in a year-on-year comparison as early as August 2021, and since then its price has been steadily increasing. In March last year, the year-on-year increase was 11 percent, which was roughly one-sixth of the growth from March this year. An even more significant difference can be seen when compared to March of last year, when the price of sugar in the EU increased by 1.6 percent year-on-year.
Just behind the Czech Republic in terms of year-on-year growth in sugar prices was Estonia, where the price of sugar rose by 97 percent. It was followed by Poland with an increase of 82 percent and Germany, where growth reached 72 percent. On the contrary, sugar became the least expensive after Hungary in Luxembourg, by 19 percent.
Agrarian analyst Petr Havel said that sugar production is specific in that sugar beet is processed seasonally, mainly in autumn, immediately after harvest. “In addition, sugar mills are the only food businesses that pay emission allowances. And just last fall and winter, energy prices were the highest in the Czech Republic, which was also reflected in sugar prices,” he added.
According to Havel, it can therefore be expected until this fall that sugar prices will be stable and will fall only very slightly. “Theoretically, a more fundamental drop in prices can only be expected in the case of sugar produced from the new harvest, i.e. in practice sometime between October and November of this year,” he added.
Also, according to economist Lukáš Kovanda, the reason for the significant increase in sugar prices is the increase in the price of gas, which is consumed in large quantities during production. He drew attention to earlier Eurostat data, according to which in the EU the year-on-year increase in gas prices in the second half of last year was in the Czech Republic, by 231 percent. According to him, the so-called profit inflation has also worked in the Czech Republic, as the situation can be described when companies explain the rise in prices with reasons such as the increase in energy prices.
“Commercial chains or food manufacturers can use it to justify their price increases even beyond objectively increased costs, for example those in the form of more expensive gas,” said Kovanda.
According to the Czech Statistical Office, a kilogram of crystal sugar cost CZK 32.23 last December. Compared to September, when the price was CZK 18.21, it increased by 77 percent in autumn. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the average consumer price of sugar has exceeded historical highs, more than 30 kroner per kilogram of sugar was not available in stores until then. The previous record was CZK 26.10 and was from September 2004.
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, 588,164 tons of sugar were produced in the 2022/2023 economic year for the so-called sugar campaign. Last year’s crop took 143 days to process. Last year, sugar beet was harvested from an area of 57,000 hectares, a year earlier it was almost 58,000 hectares. 4,106,573 tons of beet were processed into sugar.
