I had reported a few weeks ago in this series data comparing the unit cost of sugar production for Caricom producers in 2005. While the data presented then were useful for their intended comparative purpose, I am not certain that the information provided covered all or only selected components of unit costs across the region. For this reason I cannot therefore use that data for present comparative purposes in this column, since for certain all components of costs are captured in the tables which are presented below.
Table 1 shows the unit cost of GuySuCo’s sugar production for 2012 was 36.49 US cents per lb (the most recent year for which the data are available). This amount is nearly double the prevailing raw sugar price in world markets. It is also substantially above the 20 US cents per lb, which I have previously used as a marker for peak prices, when analyzing the price data since 1961.
The table also reveals the main components of overall unit cost for 2012. Clearly agricultural costs dominate (59 per cent of the total) followed by
