Dear Mr. Under Secretary:
The Sweetener Users Association (SUA) urges the Department of Agriculture to act promptly to assure adequate supplies at reasonable prices during the balance of the current fiscal year. Because the primary supply need is raw cane sugar and the U.S. cane refining industry has only a fixed amount of production capacity, we believe action is needed sooner rather than later. A basic reality of cane refining is that days of production lost due to inadequate supplies cannot subsequently be made up, due to capacity limitations.
In our view, USDA’s current official estimates of supply and demand are likely to understate the actual deliveries of sugar this year, based on performance to date. Similarly, we share the view of other market participants that beet sugar output may ultimately be less than USDA now projects. This viewpoint is certainly consistent with current pricing, which clearly reflects tighter stocks than indicated in the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE).
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