In the first episode of Season 4, we speak with Roger Bradshaw, Senior Investment Officer at Soft Commodity Consulting and a long-time expert in EU and Asia-Pacific sugar markets. Roger discusses his wide-ranging career—from broking in Paris to senior roles at ED&F Man and Rabobank—and how this experience now informs his analytical work on EU and APAC sugar sectors.

Roger outlines the growing uncertainty in the EU sugar market, driven by sustainability pressures, reduced crop protection tools, coupled income support disparities, and the impact of world-price imports via inward processing relief. The result: sharply falling prices, farmer frustration, and rising fears of factory closures. He argues the EU sugar regime has become a “Frankenstein system” in need of a complete reset, including better risk-management tools for the industry.

Looking to Asia, he highlights China’s continued focus on food security, shifting crop dynamics due to declining tomato paste exports, and a likely rebound in beet production. In Thailand, structural challenges persist—from chronic overcapacity and rising labour costs to major questions over the future of ethanol, bioplastics, and the emerging SAF sector.

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