Dubai, Feb 9 - Agri-industrial company Cargill estimates the global sugar deficit at around 4.5 million tonnes for 2008/09, the head of its Geneva sugar unit Jonathan Drake said on Monday.
In a question-and-answer session at the Dubai Kingsman sugar conference, he declined to give a forecast for 2009/10, and said he anticipated a modest slowdown in sugar demand growth, due to the economic downturn, to an annualised rate of around 1.0 percent from 2.6 percent previously.