Category Archives: In the News

Bloomberg: Tariffs Add More Turmoil to Dysfunctional US-Mexico Sugar Trade

Years of droughts in Mexico have already fractured its sugar exports to the US. Now President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs risk making the once-lucrative trade relationship even worse for America’s top foreign supplier of the commodity.

Trade agreements between the two nations were meant to create a reliable flow of affordable sugar to the US. But the system has unraveled, with more imports now coming from everywhere else. Shipments from Mexico are expected to fall to a 17-year low in 2025, leaving the Latin American nation with a smaller sliver of the market than it expected …

The Christian Science Monitor: Pricey holiday sweets? Why sugar outpaces grocery inflation.

With five trucks and a tractor to his left and a sea of leafy green before him, Dean Haubenstricker lines up his harvester and starts it forward. The high-tech machine digs up brown sugar beets, lops off their tops, and conveys them to an onboard storage bin.

Mr. Haubenstricker’s son Josh arrives alongside with the tractor and a trailer, allowing his father to discharge his beets even as he continues to harvest, and then shuttles them to a waiting truck, which whisks them off to storage. It’s as elegant and efficient a harvest as one will see in American industrial agriculture. …

Bloomberg: America’s Sugar Shortfall Leaves Candy-Makers Scrounging

Bonbons and candy canes may dominate the American holiday aesthetic, but US confectionery companies are feeling anything but jolly as they head into one of the sugar market’s tightest years in recent memory.

Prolonged droughts in major cane-producers Mexico and Louisiana have helped push US sugar futures to the highest ever for this time of year and forced users to turn to high-cost imports instead. Sweets-makers paying up to snag supplies are choosing to protect their margins by raising prices for consumers — and hoping shoppers don’t balk at the mark-up. …

Portland Press Herald: Commentary: Finding ‘the sweet spot’ for the U.S. sugar program

Over the years, our nation’s confectioners have adopted new innovations and technological advancements to optimize our operations and maintain affordable prices for our customers. But the U.S. sugar program is failing to keep pace with the needs of the larger farm and food economy, especially American food manufacturers, which today are paying two to three times more for sugar than their foreign competitors.

The problem is that we don’t produce enough sugar in America for all the manufacturers who need it. Limited planted acreage, adverse weather events and supply chain snags can leave food makers without access to a domestic source of sugar. …

The Washington Post: How U.S. sugar protectionism could sour your Halloween and Christmas

Carl Sandburg’s hog butcher, wheat stacker, city of the big shoulders — was once America’s candy capital, catering to the nation’s sweet tooth. Today it is less so because the federal government interferes with candy’s most important ingredient.

With Halloween on the horizon and Christmas close behind, sugar import quotas might produce shortages of candy corn and candy canes. Herewith another story of industrial policy gone sour. …

The Wall Street Journal: Sugar Shortage Threatens Candy Production Ahead of Halloween, Holiday Seasons

Soaring prices and sugar shortages have makers of candy canes, peanut brittle and lollipops feeling sour.

Tight sugar supplies are pushing up candy companies’ costs and, in some cases, cutting into production of sweets, executives said. …

Chicago Tribune: The 2023 Farm Bill must say no to Big Sugar’s Soviet-style subsidy program

Sugar in the U.S. costs nearly twice as much as elsewhere in the world, raising prices for candy, baked goods, ice cream and more. The reason is no mystery. A government farm-subsidy program in effect since the 1930s blocks cheaper imports and controls the price and quantity of sugar in our marketplace. As in the days of Soviet central planning, the program benefits a few at the expense of the many. …

Sun Sentinel: To protect Florida’s waterways, reform the U.S. sugar program

There’s no place like Florida. From our coastal estuaries to the Everglades and crystal-clear springs, Florida’s natural waters are a treasure. In fact, our backcountry creeks, streams, bays and ocean are the gifts that keep on giving. Without them, Florida would not lead the country in number of fishing days, dollars spent on fishing nor the number of registered boats. …

Forbes: Grocery Prices Are Soaring. Here’s Why, And How Long It Will Last

As Americans stock up on groceries during the coronavirus outbreak, wholesale and commodity prices of common staples like wheat and flour, rice, eggs and orange juice have skyrocketed; the uptick in demand is putting pressure on American supply chains and squeezing margins at grocery stores. …

Baking Business: Senators ask U.S.D.A. for more sugar

WASHINGTON — Eight senators in a Feb. 27 letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take action to ensure an adequate supply of refined sugar later in the year when shortages are expected.“As you know, adverse weather in the midwestern and southeastern U.S. significantly depressed the domestic sugar harvest in 2019,” the letter said. “As a result, U.S.D.A. projects cane and beet sugar production to decrease 8.5% and 10%, respectively, compared to the previous marketing year. Mexico also reported depleted sugarcane crops due to unfavorable weather conditions in key sugar-producing regions. This decline in North American raw sugar production threatens to disrupt supply chains and increase prices for U.S. consumers.”