Brussels, 22/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - At the meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels on Monday 21 February, the European Commission confirmed its intention to implement from early March measures to ease problems being experienced by the EU in the supply of sugar and thus calm current tension on the sugar market as a whole.
Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloº said that the EU Management Committee would be asked to vote on Thursday 24 February on two draft regulations: - one allowing the disposal of around 500,000 tonnes of out-of-quota sugar on the Community market: the minimum beetroot price will have to be paid for these quantities of sugar put back onto the internal market and this return to the market will see tax reduced from €500 per tonne to zero; - the other to encourage imports by putting in place a reduced customs duty set by a system of tenders open to all operators.
Portugal, which is facing serious problems in finding enough sugar for its refining industry, said that the import system envisaged by the Commission was “totally inappropriate”. Backed by the United Kingdom, Finland, Romania and Slovenia, it called for the opening of an import tariff quota of “at least 500,000 tonnes” of raw sugar cane, to which full-time refiners would have exclusive access during the first three months. The Commission replied that imports would be open to all operators, not just traditional refiners: “The reform CMO for sugar adopted by the Council in 2005 does not allow any other course of action”.
France, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia opposed opening the market to imports. They took the view that priority should be given to European production, that is, to out-of-quota sugar.
The proposals seek to “address the problem of imbalance of sugar supply to European markets”, said Cioloº at the press conference. These measures will allow both the marketing of European out-of-quota sugar and “access to imported sugar on the basis of a tender system, thereby ensuring a better balance between what is really needed on the European market and what can be imported”. These measures will be implemented from the start of March.
Answering a question from a journalist who saw an about-face from the decisions on the reform since it was now being proposed that supply be increased after sharply reducing production, Cioloº said that the point of the reform had not been to reduce the quantity of sugar produced, but to make the sector more competitive, “two very different things”. Currently, the EU still has an administered system for sugar, though the move is towards greater competitiveness. The reform of the CAP (common agricultural policy) after 2013 will allow discussion of the “next stage because European production will be competitive on the global market” (European price lower than world price). The Commission has to ensure balance between supply and demand on the market. “As the demand is strong, we are trying to use supply facilities at our disposal in a balance way. That is why we are proposing that account be taken of the out-of-quota sugar we have in storage in the EU and the possibility for refiners to have available imported raw sugar.”
The international sugar market is very tense. Global prices are high and, quite unusually, sugar prices in the EU have remained lower than world prices. The Commission says that, with persistently high global prices, the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries will not export their usual amounts of raw sugar to the EU (2.1 million tonnes), finding the global markets more attractive. The Commission is expecting imports from the ACP countries to be 500,000 tonnes down on usual levels. (L.C./transl.rt)