Mexico will ship more than 700,000 tons of sugar to world markets outside of the United States in the 2012/13 crop year as the country becomes a global supplier for the first time in at least a decade, according to the chief of a trade association representing cane mill owners. More than 110,000 tons of Mexican sugar has been exported to Burkina Faso, Switzerland, Canada, Mauritania, and Colombia as Mexican output has climbed to a record 6.97 million tons this year, Humberto Jasso, the director general of the Mexican Sugar Chamber, said during an industry conference. Another 600,000 tons are expected to ship before Sept. 30, the end of the sugar crop year, with more expected in the first months of the new crop year. "We expect to get over our entire surplus" between exports to the United States and other global markets by the end of November, Jasso said at the International Sweetener Symposium in Napa, California. Mexico's surplus has ballooned during the 2012/13 crop year as production has surged from about 5 million tons last year and as sugar has lost market share in recent years to high fructose corn syrup, Jasso said. Mexico's domestic prices have been falling, pressuring margins for farmers and cane mills, Jasso said. The vast majority of Mexico's sugar exports feed the U.S. market, but pressure has grown on the country to find alternatives, as U.S. prices have come under pressure from the North American surplus. The U.S. government purchased sugar from the market for the first time in a decade this year, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks to battle the falling prices and prevent forfeitures of sugar used as collateral for government-backed loans. Burkina Faso took the largest share of Mexico's exports to the world market in recent months, at about 33,000 tons, Jasso said. Exports to Switzerland totaled 24,800 tons and to Canada at 22,269 tons. Mauritania accounted for 18,800 tons of Mexico's exports and Colombia 12,087 tons. The expectations may be an ambitious as Mexico's shipments to the world market have hampered by bag difficulties and logistics concerns, traders have said. A lack of predictability in exporting has precluded investments in logistics and port facilities, said Mario Bolivar, director of Czarnikow Sugar Mexico SA de CV during a separate presentation. That investment "is needed to increase efficiencies in the sugar industry," Bolivar said. Further, competition in the marketplace is high, as global output has surged and pressured prices to three-year lows in recent weeks. (Reuters)