NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17335, 5 December 1919, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE WORLD'S SUGAR SUPPLY. A review of the world's production of sugar during each of the last six seasons has been made' by the Statistical Department of the British Board .of Trade. From this*survey it appears that the world's production of raw cane sugar (excluding the Indian crop, which if consumed locally) rose from 7,500,000 tons in 1913-14 to 9.700,000 tons in 1918-19, an increase of 2,200,000 tons. In the case of raw beet sugar, however, the world's production dropped from 8,900,000 tons in the former season to 4,300,000 tons in the latter, a decrease of 4,500,000 tons. On balance, there was therefore a deficiency in the world's supply of sugar in the season just ended (1918-19), compared with pre-war supplies amounting to approximately 2,400,000 tons. In the season 1917-18 the deficiency was somewhat less, namely, 1,400,000 tons. The season of 1918-19 is thus estimated to show a decline in sugar production of about 14 per cent, compared with 1913-14. But for the increase in the Cuban output, from 2,600,000 tons in 1913-14 to an estimated 4.000,000 tons in 1918-19, the decline would have been much more serious- The latest reports indicate that for 1919-20 the world's crops are likely to fall short of those of the previous season by about 400,000 tons. — ; THE TRADE OP BELGIUM. After an interval of more than five years, statistics of the import and export trade of Belgium have again become available. Excluding the goods reaching Belgium through the agency of the Belgian Relief Commission, the aggregate weight of inn>orts to Belgium in the first seven months of 1919 was approximately 1.649,000 tons, compared with 18,/bß.ooo tons in the corresponding period of 1913. While the value of imports has fallen by only 17 per cent,, compared with 1913, the quantities of goods imported have diminished by more than 90 per cent. the total weight of merchandise exported was about 3,500,000 tons in 1919, or about one-fourth of the weight of exports in the same period of 1913. Coal, coke, and briquettes accounted for fullv two-thirds of the exports in 1919. The excess of imports amounted to 1618 million francs £64,500.000 at par, or £43,250,000 at current rates of exchange). The. corresponding excess of imports for the first seven months of 1913 amounted tv only 588 million traces (£23,500,000 at par)