Caroline Spelman confirmed as DEFRA minister new Conservative-Liberal Democrat government

Caroline Spelman has been confirmed as the environment secretary in the newly-formed Conservative-Liberal Democrat government. Mrs Spelman, MP for Meriden, fills the post left empty by former minister Hilary Benn.

Mrs Spelman is a former sugar beet commodity secretary for the NFU. Before becoming MP for Meriden in the West Midlands in 1997, she was deputy director of the International Confederation of European Beet Growers in Paris, then a research fellow for the Centre for European Agricultural Studies at the University of Kent.

Visit the EC's "circ@" website for the latest EU sugar prices and statistics

In the dark days before the internet, official documents and data from the European Commission, essential for any professional in the EU sugar business, were distributed by fax.  I well remember receiving faxes of faxes of faxes, and staring at the shiny paper trying to discern a crucial word or number.

For several years, the European Commission has been publishing papers, e.g. regular sugar statistical balances, sugar prices, import levies, etc., on their Circ@ website, but recently, imperceptibly, and without fanfare, this website has become the primary source and archive for these important documents.  No longer do we need to call in favours asking folks to fax us faxes of faxes.

Nowadays, it's all online, and visitors to the Circ@ website today would have been amongst the first to discover that the keenly awaited October 2009 average sugar price in the EU market was recorded by the Commission to be 499.00 €/t ex-works in bulk.  Also recently uploaded to the website are the EC's latest estimates of 2009/10 sugar production in each of the Member States.

The URL for the sugar part of the Circ@ website is complicated.  Using the tr.im service (the .im domain name is based in the Isle of Man) I have shortened URL to the following which I hope you can easily remember:  tr.im/circasugar 

RSA and SAL education and training seminars

The Refined Sugar Association and The Sugar Association of London arrange regular education and training seminars, with senior members of the sugar trade and the legal profession giving their time freely to talk on a variety of subjects.

The next seminar will be held on 11 February 2010 and will be focused on Damaged Sugar - giving observation and advice from the position of the Supervisor, insurers, lawyers and Courts' perspective. Reed Smith LLP have very kindly agreed to host this event in their new offices at The Broadgate Tower, 20 Primrose Street, London EC2A 2RS.

Please click here to download the Seminar Programme, "Damaged sugar: quality final at loading?". Please click here to download the Seminar Registration Form.

Commission to publish monthly price data

The Commission has decided to publish EU domestic market prices each month, with a delay of three months. The delay is supposed to prevent the data undermining buyers and/or sellers in their negotiations. The data can be found on the Circ@ website at http://tr.im/circasugar


According to the published data, world market prices are currently above the EU reference prices for sugar.

Commission welcomes success of EU sugar reform as restructuring process concludes

"I am pleased to say that the sugar reform has been a success," said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. "This was one of the centrepieces of my current mandate and it's gratifying that we are so close to our ambitious target. Our sugar sector was in desperate need of reform. More sustainable production and prices promise a competitive future for our producers."

In a press release issued today, Mrs Fischer Boel noted that the fundamentals of the EU sugar market were sufficiently healthy and that there was no need to impose an obligatory withdrawal of sugar for the current marketing year 2008/09. Mrs Fischer Boel also noted that a preventive withdrawal is not necessary for 2009/10 either. This assessment is based on very provisional estimates, notably for imports. The EU sugar market situation will be reviewed in October on the basis of updated estimates for beet and sugar production and for imports, and again in February 2010, to see whether there is a need for "preventive withdrawal" for the marketing year 2010/2011 or a "final cut" i.e. a further reduction of quota.

Indeed, the EU27 supply/demand situation does seem fairly balanced for the next couple of years, but as EPA and EBA sugar imports grow as investments in Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and other LDC countries bear fruit, the EU27 sugar balance may move from balance to surplus.

Survivors of the sugar shake-out look forward to sweeter times

In an interesting article in today's Financial Times, it is argued that removing the EU's hitherto chronic sugar surplus should ultimately mean a return to a premium prices. "The worst of the pain is over", Julian Lakin of Mirabaud Securities is reported saying, and that pain has been "much worse than anyone expected" when the regime was originally set out, but "at least the future of ABF's and Tate's EU refining looks more assured than it did then", he adds.


In June 2008, the European Commission reported on its website that the average sugar price in the European Union (ex-work prices, standard quality, in bulk or big bags in March 2008) was €604.00 per tonne, a reduction of around 17% already compared with pre-reform average prices. In accordance with the sugar reform, the Commission has now set up an information system on prices, including a system for the publication of the price levels for the EU sugar market. According to the FT article, analysts in the City of London are asking whether the old premium to the EU price will return when the reference price drops to €404.4 per tonne. "That is the $64,000 question," Charlie Mills, analyst at Credit Suisse, says.

Tate & Lyle goes Fairtrade

Tate & Lyle announced today that they intend to convert all their retail sugar to Fairtrade™ status. In a press release, the company announced:

"At Tate & Lyle we believe in a fair deal for everyone. That's why we're working to making sure our entire retail cane sugar range is 100% Fairtrade. This means our sugar cane farmers will receive a Fairtrade Premium for their crop. We're also taking big steps to reduce our carbon emissions; that's another good reason to smile."

For further information, please click the links below:-

• List of fair trade organizations (please feel free to suggest additions to this list)


• A critical view of Fairtrade from the Daily Telegraph


• Google news about Tate & Lyles' Fairtrade announcement


• Taste and Smile website

BBC's "The Food Programme discusses EU and ACP sugar

BBC Radio Four's The Food Programme today broadcast quite a thoughtful documentary about EU and ACP sugar in light of the EU sugar reform and the EU's denunciation of the ACP Sugar Protocol. You can listen again the the programme by going to the programme's website.

BBC presenter Sheila Dillon spoke with luminaries such as Prof Jack Winkler, who advocates an increase in the EU price of sugar rather than a 36% cut, and a Mr Tom Lines, a consultant. BBC Caribbean reporter Orin Gordon interviewed The Hon Erskine Griffith, Minister of Agriculture of Barbados; Dr Anthony Kennedy, senior plant breeder at the West Indies Central Cane Breeding Station; and Mr Chris Docherty, managing director of the company behind Barbados Plantation Reserve special sugar, which is apparently being sold in Waitrose for £2.49 for 500g and in Tesco for £2.99 for 500g (that's an astonishing $12,600.00 per tonne!).

Special sugars marketed in the EU also originate in Malawi (marketed in the UK by Whitworths), Mauritius (marketed in the UK by Billingtons), Reunion and other countries.
 

Imports of high-content sugar products into the EU

The European Commission today informed operators that there is "reasonable doubt" as to the origin of sugar in high sugar content products of heading CN 1704 90 99; 1806 10 30; 1806 10 90; 1806 20 95; 1901 90 99; 2101 12 98; 2101 20 98; 2106 90 59; 2106 90 98; 3302 10 29. The Commission warned operators to take "all necessary precautions" to guard against fraud.

Council agrees "mini-reform" of EU sugar policy

The EU Agriculture Council today agreed the "mini-reform" of the EU sugar policy, Agriculture Commissioner Mrs Fischer Boel said at the press conference after the meeting. Mrs Fischer Boel noted that for the first time EU beet growers would be able to decide on quota renunciation, with the incentive of a one-off payment of 300 €/t; she further noted that the strength of the cereals market would encourage further renunciation of quota, but if the desired quantity was not reached, there would be an across-the-board quota cut in 2010. The press conference can be viewed online here. Earlier today, the beet growers group CIBE issued a press release which can be viewed here.

Council meets to agree "mini-reform" of EU sugar policy

The EU Agriculture Council meeting will start at 11.00 on Wednesday 26 September. On sugar, the Council should adopt by a qualified majority a regulation (9147/07) amending the scheme for restructuring the EU sugar industry. Certain points put to delegations in July have been taken into account in the final text; these include the principle of voluntary restructuring, a two-phase approach to restructuring applications in 2008/2009 and a final reduction in the quota which takes account of the restructuring effort already made. The Commission hopes that the amendments will free up approximately 3,8 million tonnes of sugar quota in addition to the 2,2 million tonnes already renounced. If insufficient quota is renounced by 2010, the Commission also proposes that the level of compulsory reduction should vary in the light of the number of quotas which each Member State gave up under the restructuring scheme. For more information, see the Council briefing note here and here.

EU to denounce the ACP Sugar Protocol

Sugar has been high on the agenda this month in Brussels. On September 12, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel and EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel met with ministers from key sugar producing countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific region to discuss upcoming changes in the EU's sugar import regime. The meeting with ministers from Fiji, Mauritius and Guyana took place in parallel to the European Union's ongoing negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements with the ACP.

Meanwhile, the Trade Commissioner has published an article entitled, "Why has the EU proposed to end the EU-ACP Sugar Protocol?".

"EU tube" video on reform of the EU sugar policy

EU Sugar Management Committee approves a "preventive withdrawal" of two million tonnes for the sugar year 2007-2008.

The European Commission today indicated that it expects to have to withdraw two million tonnes of sugar from the European market in October 2007 under Article 19 of Regulation 318/2006. However, the emergency powers in Article 42 of 318/2006 have been used to derogate from Article 19 for enterprises which reduce their plantings by 13.5 percent, and member States where there has been participation in the voluntary restructuring scheme. Other considerations were raised by member states, but these were deemed to be 'non-urgent', including the impact of the withdrawal on the cane refining sector and the possible consequent impact on the EU's international trade commitments.

The Commission is expected to make proposals to Agriculture Council for changes to the Council regulations in April. These proposals are expected to cover amendments to the operation of the restructuring scheme, and amendments to Article 19 which may change the basis for future quota cuts.