The Sugaright Solution to High Sugar Prices

With limited options for food companies to lower their sugar costs, Sugaright is proud to offer less processed, economical alternatives to highly refined white sugar as a long-term solution to price volatility.

The experts at the International Sweetener Colloquium agreed that higher sugar prices are here to stay for the short (and perhaps long-term) due to 1) inflationary pressures 2) a shortage of tariff free sugar into the US, 3) higher labor costs, 3) higher freight and finance costs, 4) competition from other more profitable crops and of course 5) the always present risk of adverse weather conditions in both cane sugar and beet growing areas domestically and globally.

We have been here before.

Back in 2010 food companies were caught short when refined beet sugar prices soared to almost 60 c/lb and world sugar prices reached a 29-year high of nearly 40c/lb. Additionally, the demand for non-GMO cane sugar increased as food companies sought a replacement for HFCS. The graph below also shows how since 2000, US beet sugar prices have been much more volatile than cane sugar prices. As cane sugar can be imported from many different geographies, these wider supply options reduce volatility over the long-term.

Though many of the factors that contribute to this price volatility (then and now) are out of our direct control (weather, politics); astute buyers looked for suppliers who can help them manage this on-going risk.

Sugaright became the liquid sugar supplier of choice when we asked the industry to "Change the Way they Think About Liquid Sugar" by offering less expensive, and environmentally friendly options to traditional water white refined sugar. Our Sugaright Selective Separation Refining process removes what you don’t want (microbes, heavy metals and some color) and leaves everything else.

Buyers at innovative companies saw the immediate and long-term benefits of modifying color specifications to allow for the darker colors in their products. R&D teams quickly discovered that in ice cream, yogurt, plant-based beverages, dairy based beverages and coffee creamers, 350 RBU color liquid sugar has shown no significant difference in color and flavor compared to the old industry standard of 35 RBU. And now bakeries, cereal makers, and other food processors have seen no difference in finished product quality as well.

These buyers now find themselves in the enviable position of having greater options for supply, no longer dependent on a handful of higher cost options.

The ice cream pictured above was made with 350RBU Liquid Sugar which has become the new industry standard for most dairy and plant-based products.

Challenge Creates Opportunity for Long-Term Benefits

As we find ourselves in a similar market dynamic, these solutions deserve a close analysis:

Refitting a plant to take liquid instead of sugar
Investing in RD to approve higher color liquid sugar,
Adding a second tank to allow for two color specifications if necessary

Case Study: A Quick Pivot

When the beet growers declared force majeure in 2019 due to freezing conditions, those food companies that had already changed their color specs pivoted quickly to replace beet sugar with Sugaright liquid sugar.

They could, so they did.

And those who didn’t?

We are currently working with beverage companies to help them take a laser focus on specifications for color and ash to help separate myth from science.