Horsens, 04/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is critical of countries calling for the sugar quota system to be extended until 2018 or 2020, saying that the industry must become more competitive. At the EU27 Agriculture Council in Horsens (Denmark) on Sunday 4 June 2012, EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said it was difficult to justify extending the sugar production quota system given the nature of the sugar sector. The Commission wants the quota system to be phased out by 2015.
The sugar sector is not like those of the wine and dairy markets because it incorporates both sugarbeet growers and sugar processing plants. Ciolos said there is a gap between EU sugar prices and the global price and the question of sugar supplies in the EU market. He said it would not be a good idea to continue with an administrative system managing sugar supply on the EU market, saying that the best way to make the industry more competitive is to phase out quotas but keep market mechanisms like sugar contracts and crisis intervention measures. He said it would not be a good way of economically managing an industry to restrict production in the EU, which needs more sugar to meet demand, or to restrict exports when the export market is looking good. (LC/transl.fl)