Traders look to China as global sugar stocks climb

China is storing a growing mountain of sugar it does not want or need as inflated domestic prices, designed to protect farmers who face some of the world's highest production costs, attract imports from a global market overflowing with supplies.

A more than doubling of stocks last season had led many to expect China to sharply reduce purchases in 2012/13 but imports now look set to exceed expectations, traders and analysts attending the Feb. 2-5 Kingsman Dubai sugar conference said.