Powdered Sugar Shortage - Read Official Reason Here!
Decorating By surfergina Updated 27 Jan 2006 , 12:20am by chaptlps
I contacted the sugar company to find out why we're experiencing powdered sugar shortage. They kindly replied it back to me and here it is:
Gina - The sugar shortage is due to Hurricane's Katrina and Rita. When Katrina hit, it closed one sugar factory in Louisiana (which is just starting to operate again) and closed our sugar refinery down for approximately 3 weeks. With the hurricane, FEMA took a majority of the trucks, so that when we were back producing, we had a difficult time being able to transport product. When Rita hit, it further hampered our efforts to supply sugar to our customers. It also didn't help that the timing of the hurricanes was in our busy season of trying to produce sugar for the holidays.
Now that the holidays are over, we are doing our best to get all of our customers back in stock with sugar. You should start seeing a massive improvement on the sugar shelf within weeks.
Thank you!
Angela Hatfield
Imperial Sugar Co.
What do you think of this?
Interesting.
But, here in the west we still use a lot of "beet sugar" (there's a plant in town)
So basically we haven't noticed a shortage here but i guess if you are a "cane sugar" purist that would be a problem though. o well, it should right itself pretty soon.
Happy Baking.
I've definitely noticed a shortage where I am. I buy whatever I find on the shelves. It's rare that I find it at Wal-mart ... and some of the grocery stores are always out, also.
I am in the transportation industry, and I can confirm that after the hurricanes we had down here (I'm in FL) we did have a SERIOUS shortage of trucks. FEMA paid the trucks at least twice what I can for a load, and they also paid them AT LEAST $600 per day for sitting with a load on, if not more. So, I pretty much got hit double by the hurricanes!
I am in the transportation industry, and I can confirm that after the hurricanes we had down here (I'm in FL) we did have a SERIOUS shortage of trucks. FEMA paid the trucks at least twice what I can for a load, and they also paid them AT LEAST $600 per day for sitting with a load on, if not more. So, I pretty much got hit double by the hurricanes!
must be that cane sugar is exclusive in the southern part of the us. where they don't really have access to beet sugar or something. wonder why the stores didn't at least try to get some of their sugar from california or colorado or nebraska or something.
Most of the sugar that our Wal-Mart does receive now is from California ... in the pink and white bags (CK I think) very little of Imperial or Domino
I also noticed that around Xmas time. I haven't checked since, so I don't know, but I thought it was that one store and I thought it was weird for them not to have it on stock. But that letter you received pretty much explains it. I'm surprised the shortages aren't even worse with those 2 storms hitting and affecting produce. Thanks for info.
Powdered sugar shortage here in Daytona Beach, FL area. Only small boxed Domino kind - charging $1.39. I'm going to drive to Orlando (yep, that mean 45 mins drive) and try to get it as I can.
Wow! I had no idea there was a shortage...never occured to me to ask my local Walmart why they have been out of it. I just assumed they were "out" of it and waiting for the shipment to arrive. I have been able to find it at my local Tom Thumb store. I'm gonna start paying more attention!
I just so happened to catch an episode of The Secret Life of... the other night and the topic was sugar.
Sugar cane is produced only in the humid Gulf states of Florida, Lousiana, and out in Hawaii.
C&H sugar is not beet sugar ~ it is cane sugar (the host went to their sugar processing plant and sugar cane fields in Hawaii). It was really neat seeing the C&H plant and going through the processing of sugar from field to store.
I have most definitely noticed a shortage of sugar here in Houston. And no Imperial sugar at all!
It was a really awesome show...those of you with FoodTV ought to try to catch the repeats!
~ Sherri
I caught that show as well. Very interesting. And there is a definate shortage here as well. Our local grocery stores are carrying some crazy offbrand called Harvey's and there is no powdered sugar in our local stores. I'm hoping to get lucky tomorrow at Sam's Club.
No Shortage here in Massachusetts just bought some Dominoe for $1.29 for a 2Lb bag
No shortage here in Richmond VA, thankfully. I did notice today that the price went up from $1 to $1.07 for a 2lb bag at Wal-Mart.
How do you know if it's cane or beet sugar and what's the difference (other than it's from different sources)?
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