Well sorry for the delay in posting but I was at FreedomFest in Vegas and simply got caught up. Meanwhile in case you have been asleep, the dollar is crashing to new lows as gold seems to make new highs everyday… The failure of IndymacBank just underscores the depth of the crisis. Gold is a safe haven for a reason. How many times have you seen people lining up to get their gold out of a vault, not many.
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Meanwhile good news over in the world of sugar….

As many of you follow me know Ia m keen on sugar and now we have even more reasons to smile….Read on,

India’s Sugar Output May Decline 25%, Boosting Prices (Update2)

By Thomas Kutty Abraham
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July 15 (Bloomberg) — India’s sugar output, the second- biggest in the world, may fall as much as 25 percent next year, sparking the steepest jump in prices since March.

Production may decline to 20 million metric tons in the year ending September, 2009, Vinay Kumar, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd., said in New Delhi. That’s less than the 22 million tons forecast by the London-based International Sugar Organization this month.

Lower output may support raw sugar prices that have risen 26 percent this year as record oil costs boost demand for biofuels including ethanol made from cane. Farmers in India are growing corn, rice and soybeans instead of sugar after the commodities jumped to their highest this year, Kumar said.

“Sugar prices will rise further as India’s production falls and demand rises during the festival season” starting in September, said Amol Tilak, an analyst at Kotak Commodity Services Ltd. in Mumbai. “If oil reaches $150 a barrel, prices will rise faster.”

A smaller crop may halve India’s exports to 2 million tons, Kumar said. The National Federation of sugar mills produces almost half of India’s output of the sweetener.

Sugar for August delivery on India’s National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange rose as much as 3.3 percent to 1,615 rupees per 100 kilograms, the most since March 5. The contract traded at 1,603 rupees at 1:25 p.m. in Mumbai.

Raw sugar futures traded on ICE Futures U.S., the former New York Board of Trade, gained as much as 1 percent to 13.73 cents a pound in the after-hours trading. Prices declined 2.9 percent yesterday. The most-active contract closed at a 25-year high of 19.3 cents a pound on Feb. 3, 2006.

Exceeding Demand

Global refined sugar production will probably exceed demand by 2 million tons in the 12 months through March, according to Lausanne, Switzerland-based researcher Kingsman SA estimates.

Indian cane growers planted the crop across 4.31 million hectares (10.7 million acres) by July 11, 19 percent less than a year earlier, the farm ministry said last week. In comparison, area under rice expanded 6 percent to 9.23 million hectares and soybeans were planted in 23 percent more area from a year ago.

Corn climbed to a record $7.9925 a bushel on June 27 while soybeans reached $16.3675, their highest ever, on July 3 after the U.S. farmers planted less area to the crop. Crude oil almost doubled in the past year to $147.27 a barrel on July 11.

Refined sugar output in the eight months ended June was 25.8 million tons, down from 27.8 million tons a year earlier, the federation’s Kumar said. Harvests in the western state of Maharashtra were delayed because of rain, and mills in northern Uttar Pradesh refused to process the crop because of a price dispute with the state government, he said.

Discourage Exports

“We will continue to export sugar next year though the quantity will not be the same,” Kumar said. “Removal of export incentives and better domestic prices may discourage exports.”

India’s government will end a freight subsidy of as much as 1,450 rupees ($34) a ton on Sept. 30, reducing exporters’ ability to compete with Brazilian and Thai suppliers.

The South Asian nation may have a stockpile of 12 million tons in the new crop year beginning Oct. 1 and local demand may total 22 million tons, Kumar said.