FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               CONTACT:    Phillip Hayes

Monday, August 1, 2011                                                                                202-271-5734 (cell)

From the International Sweetener Symposium:

Current Sugar Policy Equals Stable Supplies in Unstable Times

STOWE, Vt. -- Despite a tumultuous year globally, marked by sugar rationing in Europe and a possible production decline in Brazil, the U.S. sugar market has been sufficiently supplied and will have more than 1.5 million tons of surplus stocks by the end of this crop year, according to recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (UDSA) projections.

U.S. sugar producers credit the stability of the market with the flexibility of America’s no-cost sugar policy, which provides a mixture of homegrown sugar with imports.

The success of the no-cost sugar policy was on full display today at the 28^th International Sweetener Symposium when USDA economist Barbara Fecso explained the Department’s views on maintaining adequate supplies of raw and refined sugar in the U.S. market within sugar policy parameters.

“When we determined that more sugar was needed, we were able to allow more imports on the market to complement supplies from a healthy domestic industry,” she said of the USDA’s decision this year to twice increase the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) to boost imports.

Sugar producers in developing countries have benefitted from the TRQ increases, and they are among the biggest supporters of U.S. sugar policy.

Paul Ryberg, president of the International Sugar Trade Coalition, which consists of sugar producers from developing nations in all regions of the world, told attendees that his group will strongly encourage Congress to extend the current no-cost sugar policy in the 2012 Farm Bill.

“By making it possible for these developing countries to export their sugar to the U.S. market at a fair price, the U.S. sugar program is a proven example of what has become a development policy mantra over the past several years: ‘Trade, not Aid,’” he said.

Randy Green, president of the Sweetener User Association, which is comprised of food manufacturers, told the audience that his group believes the no-cost sugar policy should be reformed.  Ryberg and domestic sugar producers disagree because they say it would eliminate U.S. sugar production and give developing countries’ share of the market to agricultural superpowers like Brazil.

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For more information about the International Sweetener Symposium, visit www.sugaralliance.org

Symposium audio files can be downloaded at www.ASAradio.org