Sugar
One number decides which trade you are in.
Raw cane sugar for refiners and white refined ICUMSA 45 for consumption markets. Same molecule, two entirely different businesses — different buyers, different contracts, different futures markets and a different set of ways to lose money.
The desk
Raw sugar is a feedstock. White sugar is a finished good. Almost nothing about them is shared.
Raw cane sugar — very high polarisation, VHP — is bought by refineries to be melted, cleaned and recrystallised. Its buyer is an industrial plant with its own refining loss to manage, and the parameters that matter are the ones that predict how it will behave in that process.
White refined sugar at ICUMSA 45 is bought by food manufacturers, bottlers, bakeries and distributors for direct use. Its buyer is judging appearance, dissolution, absence of taint and consistency between bags — and has no refinery to fix anything.
They price off different futures contracts, move under different packing, and fail in different ways. A refiner will accept a slightly off-colour raw and adjust; a beverage bottler will reject a white for a colour drift that a refiner would not have noticed. So the first question on a sugar enquiry is which of the two trades you are actually in, and we have had that conversation end more than one enquiry before a price was ever discussed.
Colour
ICUMSA is a measurement, not a grade name.
The International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis gives its name to the colour scale the whole trade uses. Lower is whiter. The number is the result of a defined analytical method, which is why it can be argued about precisely rather than vaguely.
| Designation | Character | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| ICUMSA 45 | The white refined benchmark, sparkling white. | Direct consumption, beverages, confectionery, dairy and pharmaceutical use. The grade most consumption markets specify by default, and the one whose name is most often used loosely for sugar that is not it. |
| ICUMSA 100–150 | White to off-white. | Industrial and bakery use where appearance is less critical. Real products with real markets, and materially cheaper — worth knowing about if your process does not need 45. |
| ICUMSA 600–1200 | Light amber through to golden. | Mill white and plantation white grades, and regional consumption markets that prefer them. |
| Raw — VHP | Amber to brown, colour typically in the thousands. | Refinery feedstock. Colour is reported but is not the governing term — polarisation is. |
Polarisation
Why the price line has a decimal point in it.
Polarisation measures sucrose content by the angle through which a sugar solution rotates polarised light. It is the oldest quantitative measurement in the trade and it remains the basis on which raw sugar is paid for.
- The polarisation scale
- Raw sugar is contracted at a base polarisation with a premium or discount per fraction of a degree above or below it. That scale is the price mechanism, and it means a cargo running a few tenths light is a calculable adjustment rather than a dispute. State the base and the scale; a polarisation minimum without a scale is a rejection threshold pretending to be a price.
- What VHP means
- Very high polarisation — raw sugar produced deliberately at a higher purity than the traditional raw grade, so that a refinery recovers more from each tonne. It is a distinct product with a distinct price, not simply good raw sugar.
- On white sugar
- Polarisation is specified as a minimum rather than as a scale, because a white refined sugar is either at grade or it is not. Here colour and the absence of taint do the work that polarisation does on raws.
- Safety factor
- A composite figure combining moisture and polarisation that predicts whether a raw sugar will keep in storage. Refiners with long storage cycles specify it, and it is the parameter that separates a cargo that arrives sound from one that has started to deteriorate.
Specification
What we report, and what each line is for.
Two sets, because the two products are judged differently. The overlap is smaller than people expect.
| Parameter | Raw — VHP | White refined — ICUMSA 45 |
|---|---|---|
| Polarisation | Base figure with a premium and discount scale per fraction of a degree. | A minimum, commonly 99.8 °Z or higher. |
| Colour | Reported in ICUMSA units; informative rather than governing. | The governing parameter. Maximum 45 ICUMSA units with the method named. |
| Moisture | Contracted with a maximum, and combined with polarisation into the safety factor. | Tight maximum. Moisture in a white sugar means caking and microbiological risk in a food ingredient. |
| Ash | Predicts refining behaviour and molasses formation. | Low maximum. Affects taste and conductivity in beverage use. |
| Reducing sugars | Indicates degradation and inversion, and predicts colour formation on refining. | Low maximum; a marker of process control. |
| Sediment and insolubles | Reported. | Critical. A beverage buyer is dissolving this product and anything undissolved is a visible defect in the finished drink. |
| Sulphur dioxide | Generally not applicable. | A maximum, because some whitening routes use sulphitation and residues are regulated in food. |
| Microbiology | Not usually specified. | Total plate count, yeasts and moulds, per batch. This is a food ingredient, and beverage and dairy buyers hold their own limits. |
| Grain size | Not specified. | Fine, medium or coarse, with a stated distribution. It governs dissolution rate and flow, and a bakery and a bottler want different ones. |
Carriage
Sugar is hygroscopic, and it does not forgive a wet hold.
Sugar cargoes travel under Group C schedules of the IMSBC Code — no liquefaction regime, no chemical hazard. The risk is entirely commercial and it is entirely about water and taint.
- Caking and crusting
- Sugar absorbs moisture from humid air and from ship's sweat, and sets. A crusted surface layer over sound cargo is the classic raw sugar outturn problem, and the dispute afterwards turns on the moisture record at loading and the ventilation record at sea.
- Taint
- Sugar picks up odour readily and permanently. Hold cleanliness and the previous cargo are certified before loading, and on white refined the previous cargo history is a food-safety document rather than a housekeeping one.
- Colour drift on whites
- Heat and moisture during a long voyage can move colour in a white sugar. A cargo shipped at 42 ICUMSA against a 45 maximum has less margin than the certificate suggests, and on a long tropical route we say so.
- Packing
- Bulk for raws into refineries. For whites, 50 kg polypropylene bags with a food-grade liner, or 1 MT jumbo bags, with the liner specified and the stacking limit honest. A bag specification without the liner is not a specification.
- Food-grade chain
- On white refined, holds, containers, liners and handling equipment all have to be food grade and documented as such. This is the practical difference between shipping an ingredient and shipping a commodity.
Pricing
Two futures markets, and the spread between them is its own trade.
Raw and white sugar have separate exchange contracts, and the difference between them is a market in itself.
- Raw sugar
- The ICE No. 11 contract, priced in US cents per pound, is the global raw benchmark. Cargoes trade at a differential to it for origin, quality and delivery.
- White sugar
- The ICE white sugar contract, priced in US dollars per tonne. Note the unit change — cents per pound against dollars per tonne — which is a genuine source of arithmetic error when the two are compared casually.
- The white premium
- The spread between the two, expressed per tonne, is the market's view of refining margin and of white sugar availability. It moves independently of the flat price, so a formula written on raws does not track a white requirement and vice versa.
- Policy risk
- Sugar is among the most intervened-in agricultural markets: export quotas, import duties, ethanol diversion in cane origins, and preferential access schemes. A price that looks anomalous is usually a policy fact rather than an opportunity.
- What to fix
- The contract, the month, the differential, the polarisation scale on raws or the colour maximum on whites, the determination point, and the weight basis.
Scope
Where our obligation ends.
- What we supply
- Raw cane sugar VHP in bulk for refiners, and white refined sugar across the ICUMSA range in 50 kg bags, jumbo bags and containers, with independent determination at the contractual point.
- What we do not do
- We do not mill or refine, we do not operate terminals or packing plants, and we hold no equity in production. We do not offer hedging.
- ICUMSA claims
- We will not describe a sugar as ICUMSA 45 without a colour certificate from an identified laboratory using the named method. This is the most misused designation in the food trade and we do not add to it.
- Determination
- Agreed before the specification, with the superintendent named and the point stated. Polarisation, colour and moisture at the contractual point bind both parties.
- Food-grade chain
- On white refined, we contract for the food-grade chain — holds or containers, liners, handling — and not merely for the analysis at loading.
How to specify
Six lines and we can price it.
Line one answers itself if you tell us what you do with the sugar.
Raw or white, and the grade
VHP raw, or white with the ICUMSA maximum. If you are not sure, tell us the end use and we will say which.
Polarisation basis
On raws, the base and the premium and discount scale. On whites, the minimum.
The rest of the specification
Moisture, ash, reducing sugars, sediment, SO₂ and grain size on whites; safety factor on raws if you store.
Microbiology
On whites, your total plate count, yeast and mould limits, and whether you need per-batch certification.
Packing and delivery
Bulk, 50 kg bags with the liner specified, or jumbo bags; FOB, CFR or delivered; and the shipment window.
Determination and pricing
The determination point and superintendent, and which futures contract, month and differential.
Inspection
Colour and polarisation, and what a bag looks like inside.
Independent determination by a superintendent appointed for the cargo — SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek — instructed jointly, with sampling under supervision and sealed retained samples held for the claim period.
- Sampling
- Increment sampling during loading on bulk, or a statistically drawn bag sample on packed cargo, with the number of bags sampled stated. Sugar segregates by grain size, so the sampling plan is part of the result.
- Core analysis
- Polarisation, colour in ICUMSA units with the method named, moisture, ash, reducing sugars, sediment and insolubles. On whites, sulphur dioxide and grain size distribution.
- Microbiology on whites
- Total plate count, yeasts and moulds per batch, from a laboratory the buyer accepts. A food ingredient is not certified by a commodity analysis alone.
- Condition
- Holds or containers inspected, cleaned and certified with previous cargo declared; ventilation regime agreed and recorded; cargo photographed at load and discharge with attention to crusting, lumps, damp patches, bag condition and liner integrity.
- Quantity
- Draught survey on bulk with the governing survey named, or weighbridge and bag count on packed cargo with the tare basis stated.
- Documentation per cargo
- Certificate of quality with polarisation and colour and the methods named, certificate of condition, microbiological certificate on whites, weight certificate, food-grade declaration for the chain, health certificate where the destination requires it, certificate of origin, bill of lading and the superintendent's report with photographs.
Straight answer
What we will tell you before you ask.
- That ICUMSA 45 is a measurement, not a label
- It is a laboratory result with a method behind it. We will not describe a sugar as 45 without a colour certificate, and an offer that leads with the phrase and cannot produce one has answered the question.
- That raw and white are two different businesses
- Different buyers, different contracts, different exchanges, different failure modes. Tell us the end use and we will tell you which trade you are actually in.
- That the polarisation scale is the price
- A minimum without a scale is a rejection threshold. With a scale, a cargo running light is arithmetic instead of an argument.
- That cents per pound and dollars per tonne are not comparable
- Raws price on one, whites on the other. It is the commonest arithmetic error in this market and it is entirely avoidable.
- That colour can drift on a long voyage
- A white shipped at 42 against a 45 maximum has less margin than it looks. On a long tropical route we will say so rather than let the certificate do the talking.
Enquiries
Every enquiry is answered by the desk that handles it.
Send the product, quantity, delivery basis, destination and timing. We revert with availability, an indication and the documentation that accompanies it. Specifications are released once we know who we are speaking with.