Brussels, 07/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - Amendments brought to the sugar sector restructuring system at the end of 2007 should see sugar quota reductions of 3.8 million tonnes (in addition to the 2.2 million tonnes already withdrawn from the market). The target has not yet been reached since, according to information provided by member states on 31 January (within the relevant revenue and expenditure account), 2.09 million tonnes of under-utilised quota sugar will be withdrawn from the market in 2008-2009. The European Committee of Sugar producers (CEFS) expects the total amount to come to roughly 2.5 million tonnes, since member states have until 11 February to update their list in relation to industry demand. Therefore, a further 1.3 million tonnes will have to be renounced to meet the target of 3.8 million tonnes set by the European Commission. The Commission retains the right to impose a compulsory reduction in quotas by the end of February at the latest (if this were to happen, renunciation of quotas would no longer be subsidised).
According to the information sent to the European Commission on 31 January, the member states which made most use of restructuring funding are Germany (490,692 tonnes, or 13.4% of the 2008-2009 quota), France (278,441t, 7.6% of the quota), Poland (239,336t, 13.5%), Spain (231,806t, 26.1%) the United Kingdom (165,000t, 13.5%) and Belgium (119,561t). In addition, Spain announced that would renounce 132,106 tonnes for 2009-2010. These figures will be updated at the management committee meeting on 14 February.
Producers not wholly satisfied
Taking note of the figures presented at the management committee meeting of 31 January, CEFS expects that, within the coming days, the Commission will let companies know, after the first “step” (of requests for restructuring aid), “to what extent they risk an uncompensated cut in 2010 if they do not participate in the second step”. The second step ends on 31 March. CEFS “also expects that, to make this second step happen, and to fill as much as possible of the gap with the EU total target for quotas to be renounced in the period from 1 July 2006 until 31 January 2009, the Commission will implement a preventative withdrawal”. The Advisory Group on Sugar is scheduled to meet on 18 February.
Reminder of the regulation. Community legislation provides for the two-stage presentation of requests for restructuring aid for 2008-2009. The first stage ends on 31 January and must at least correspond to the preventive withdrawal of 13.5% of the quota per member state to allow the opportunity to take part in stage two. Thus, companies which have already renounced some of their 2008-2009 quotas will be able to submit a further request to avoid a linear, non-EU subsidised reduction in quotas which the Commission wants to implement in 2010, if necessary. (L.C.)