The Middle East's largest sugar refiner has attacked European Union export subsidies, saying they distorted trade and depressed sugar prices below production costs.

"The EU is the main culprit, dumping five million tonnes a year onto the world market," Jamal Al Ghurair, chairman of Dubai-based Al Khaleej Sugar Company, told an international sugar conference in Egypt. He urged the EU to reduce sugar export subsidies and open its market to free sugar trade on equal terms.

He said EU exports into a saturated market had forced the white sugar premium over raws down to about $25 a tonne, whereas break-even for Gulf sugar refineries is around $35 a tonne. Gulf refiners are, Thais excepted, among the world's lowest cost sugar producers, due to cheap energy and good port facilities.