OCR Text |
Show SUGAR SUPPLY is mm No Shortage Imminent, Says Reports of New York Commerce Bank There is no national sugar shortage imminent in the United States, and in no year since the beginning of the war has there been a countrywide shortage, it is declared in a statement issued by the National Bank of Commerce in New York, received in Salt Lake yesterday. yes-terday. The statement continues: "A study of the facts of supply and consumption shows that what regional shortages did occur were due to maladjustment mal-adjustment in distribution, in respect both to different localities and to different dif-ferent periods of the year. Next year no excess of consumption is likely. Present Pres-ent prospects indicate that the supply will be normal. "The United States consumes more sugar than any other country, but ranks only fifth in the world's production. Consequently we are forced to import three-fourths of our sugar supply, which makes us an important factor in the international market. "The United States consumed an annual an-nual average of 3,797,000 tons of sugar before the war, equal to over one-fii'th of the world's total production. Of this amount we produced ouly 882,000 tons, or 23 per cent. ' ' Cuba now leads the world in sugar production. Before the war the British India and German sugar crops ranked first and second, respectively, the Cuban Cu-ban crop being only third. In 1917 and 1918 Cuba produced more sugar than either British India or Germany, and her estimated 1919 crop is larger than the estimated crops of these two countries coun-tries combined, and more than twice as larcre as her own average pre-war crop. It will amount this year to nearly one-fourth one-fourth of the world's production, in contrast to less than one-eighth before the war. "British India and Germany, each of which before the war raised about one-seventh one-seventh of the world's crop, will raise this year one-seventh and one-twelfth, respectively. The Javan crop has so far increased in importance since the outbreak of the war that tho 1919 crop is estimated at over one-tenth of the world's croo. The total world's crop of 1919 is estimated at 18,312,000 tons, an-proximately an-proximately a million tons less than the 1918 crop, but over a half million tons more than the average prewar crop." |