Where it comes from
Individually, the countries of the European Union (EU) are not major sugar producers or traders. Collectively, however, they are the world’s largest producer (almost entirely of sugar beet), second-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer.

Sugar is mostly consumed in the countries where it is grown. India, the world’s largest producer, is not among the top 10 exporters; Brazil, the largest exporter, consumes almost twice as much at home (some of it converted into ethanol for cars).

Some countries – particularly in the Caribbean, like Jamaica – have always produced sugar primarily for export, and depend on it for foreign currency.

Other countries – like Australia (the world’s second-largest exporter), Thailand and Mauritius – also export a large proportion of their production but have other sources of income as well.

Too much of it about
The consumption of sugar is growing faster than the world’s population, which is increasing at roughly 1% a year – so people are consuming more and more sucrose.

Production is growing more quickly than consumption – oversupply makes sugar cheaper on world markets, where many poor countries have to sell their exports.

Fuelling the habit
Big sugar businesses in rich (OECD) countries, through price support and subsidies as well as quotas and high tariffs on imports, receive roughly 1.75 times the amount they would without them; consumers pay roughly twice as much as they would on an open ‘world’ market.³

As a result, sugar beet – which is mostly grown in rich countries – is one of the most profitable of all arable crops, even though the cost of producing sucrose from beet is roughly double that from cane.

This profitability encourages overproduction and ‘dumping’ on world markets – particularly by the European Union (EU). In 1999/2000 the EU imported 1.9 million tons of raw sugar, but exported 5.1 million tons.

Pop goes the soda
The average can of ‘soda pop’ contains 40 grams of refined sugars – equivalent to 10 teaspoons of sugar. An average North American consumes 48 gallons of carbonated soft drinks every year.

The US Department of Agriculture recommends that, on average, no-one should consume more than about 40 grams of refined sugars per day – the equivalent of just one can of soda pop. Carbonated drinks are the single biggest source of refined sugars in the American diet.⁵

In 1999 Coca-Cola, the world’s largest user of refined sugars, spent a total of $1.6 billion on marketing worldwide.⁶

Obesity
There is overwhelming evidence that a high intake of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods with high levels of sugar and saturated fats – combined with reduced physical activity – promotes weight gain (see article here).⁷

There are more than 1 billion overweight adults in the world, at least 300 million of them obese. Current obesity levels range from below 5% in China, Japan and certain African nations to over 75% in urban Samoa. Even in China, rates are almost 20% in some cities.

An estimated 17.6 million children are overweight worldwide; the number has doubled – and for adolescents trebled – in the US since 1980.

In Thailand the prevalence of obesity in 5-12 year olds rose from 12.2% to 15.6% in just two years.

Obesity accounts for 2-6% of total healthcare costs in several developed countries.

Tooth decay
Sugars are the most important dietary factor in the development of dental decay (see article here).⁷

The average number of decayed, missing or filled permanent teeth at 12 years of age in low-income countries is 1.9, in middle-income countries 3.3 and in high-income countries 2.1.

Data on 5-year-old children in Europe suggest that the trend towards reduced dental decay has halted.

As the world’s population ages, the problem of root caries (decay) is likely to become a significant public-health concern.