Macrossan & Amiet Solicitors hold Sugar Pricing Seminar

Macrossan & Amiet Solicitors recently held their Sugar Pricing Seminar for our cane farming clients and wider industry in both Proserpine and Mackay on Friday 26 May 2017.  This is the second year in a row that Macrossan & Amiet have held their Sugar Pricing Seminar and we were extremely happy response from clients and wider industry in attendance.

Macrossan & Amiet were again privileged to have Mr Tom McNeil, owner and director of Green Pool Commodity Specialists present at our seminar and provide our cane farming clients and the broader industry with his up to date and informed assessment of the current global sugar market and an insight into the short to medium term future.

To those in the sugar industry, Tom requires no introduction and has more than thirty (30) years of experience in the broader sugar industry.  Tom has been a sugar analyst for the greater part of his career, initially starting with Queensland Sugar Limited, then working for CSR Raw Sugar Marketing, Kingsmen and in recent times, operating his own business Green Pool Commodity Specialists.

Tom was able to give those in attendance a detailed insight into the current global sugar market as a whole and then went into detail each of the global growing regions and how their respective growing seasons have fared.

Tom also reflected on his seminar presentation last year where farmers and sugar cane millers were experiencing an unprecedented rise in the global sugar price.  As Tom predicted, the sugar price since last year has rationalised falling from as high as 24.10 US cents per pound to around 16 US cents per pound.  It was discussed that there is potential for the global price to hover around the cost of production between 14 to 17 US cents per pound.  Tom explained the general trend for the global supply is two years of deficit followed by three years of surplus and that the market was transitioning from the deficit to surplus phase.

By Tom’s assessment, the market will still have a deal of uncertainty in the next six months due to a number of global factors including potential impact of political decision making in China, India and Brazil; the entry of the European Union to the global market; and the potential impacts of El Nino on the growing areas of South East Asia and Centre South Brazil.

We were also fortunate to have Brent Casey and Stephen Stone of Queensland Commodity Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mackay Sugar, in attendance.  In conjunction with Tom, Brent and Stephen facilitated a question and answer panel discussion with our clients regarding various topics relating to pricing, supply and other issues facing industry.

Macrossan & Amiet thanks those clients and industry stakeholders who attended the seminar.  Macrossan & Amiet extends its thanks and gratitude to Tom McNeil for again making himself available to impart his knowledge on the attendees and also Brent Casey and Stephen Stone for their input and insight.

Some photos from the Seminar