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U.S. sugar policy protects farmers from glut

A sugarbeet leader says the sugar industry has its own trade issues as a global surplus weighs on the market.

Luther Markwart with the American Sugar Alliance tells Brownfield subsidized production of sugar in countries like India and Thailand has more to do with social stability, “When you’re subsiding an industry not based on market pressures, but based on social stability, you end up producing more than what you need, more than what the global markets are, we’re in a wash of sugar globally.”

He says that over production threatens efficient producers which is why maintaining policy in the 2018 Farm Bill to insulates U.S. sugar producers is a must, “The price is much more stable that what you will find in other commodities.  If we didn’t have U.S. sugar policy, prices would be sky high and then horribly low.”

Experts at the recent American Sugar Alliance’s International Symposium expect over production to continue through 2019 in India and Thailand.