Cost of sugar leaves bad taste in mouth

The soaring cost of sugar is worrying both businesses and consumers and has even pushed some people to cut back on their intake.

According to www.ynsugar.com, a portal about the sugar industry, the cost of the sweet stuff in Beijing surged to a record high of 6,500 yuan a ton this week. The cost was up by almost 40 percent on its price from the same period in 2009.

The price hike was partly down to supply problems caused by the drought from earlier this year in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The region is responsible for about 70 percent of China's sugar production.