Investing in sugar in emerging markets

With sugar trading at US$175/tonne and with stock markets and currencies of emerging markets collapsing, this may appear an inappropriate time to focu s on investing in sugar in;emerging markets. However if we recall the trade r's philosophy of "buy cheap, sell dear" then it could be argued that there has rarely been a better time for the long term investor in sugar. This paper has two principal aims: to review the fundamental factors drivin g successful investment in sugar production, and to use CDC's recent experi ence to develop some simple: "benchmarks", The-major conclusions are that i t is best not to start new sugar projects, or to spend more than US$500/trs on acquisition or expansion. Exposure to the world-market should be minimi sed, while aiming fora viable capacity utilisation score (trs produced. div ided by tcpd capacity). Finally, sale of equity stakes should be considered if a price over US$1,000/tr can be obtained.