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. …

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. …

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.”

POLITICO Pro: USDA makes $285M available for sugar beet processors

The Agriculture Department plans to send $285 million to sugar beet processing cooperatives that lost money in 2018 and 2019 after some of the worst harvests because of snowstorms, rain and frost, Secretary Sonny Perdue announced today.The money is available under USDA’s $4.5 billion disaster aid fund authorized by Congress last year, known as the Wildfires and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus. Signups begin March 23. …