Member state experts on the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), meeting on 14 May, expressed their concern at the low price of sugar.
On 9 May, the International Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and European sugar manufacturers (CEFS) called on the European Commission and the Council of Ministers of the EU to “take account of the escalating crisis in the sector” and to “consider ways to minimise the ongoing and potentially irreversible damage”.
At €372/tonne in February 2018, the EU average white sugar price is currently at its lowest level since the price reporting system was established in July 2006, and down by more than 25% since August 2017, “far below” production costs, the two organisations state.
Sugar exports, while greater than under the quota system, are restricted by current world market price levels, debasing a major outlet, they add. World market prices “do not reflect economic realities” as they are “depressed in large part by subsidised production and exports from Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan, and India”. If the gap between current EU sugar prices and those up until September 2017 remains at the present level, “the net transfer of wealth from the sugar sector (farmers and industry) to secondary processors and retailers will be at least €2 billion by the end of 2018”, the two organisations state.
CIBE held its 45th Congress in Ghent, Belgium from 15 to 18 May. It elected Éric Lainé, president of the Confederation of French Beet Growers (CGB), as its new president. Lainé succeeds Bernhard Conzen of Germany. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)