Rainy summer pushes France sugar production towards record

PARIS, Sept 25 (AFP): A rainy summer has helped boost French sugar production towards a record 5.2 million tonnes, posing a problem of oversupply, a state oversight agency said Thursday.
"To avoid an exceptional carry-over into the 2015-2016 period, it would be best to maximise sugar beet ethanol production and to quickly export a maximum amount of non-quota sugar," the agency, FranceAgriMer, said in a statement.
As well as being a food-sweetener, sugar can be an industrial ingredient for making cement, detergents -- and ethanol, a form of motor fuel that can be added to gasoline.
FranceAgriMer said the 2014-2015 harvest looked like resulting in three million tonnes under European quotas and another 2.2 million tonnes outside the quotas.
Such an oversupply in the market could greatly depress prices, especially as, Europe-wide, production is expected to hit a record 19 million tonnes, with much of it outside the set quotas, and global prices are in decline.
Europe is the main world source of sugar from sugar beets, a root plant high in sucrose that needs two years to mature. Other producers, such as Brazil and Australia, derive sugar from sugarcane.