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. …

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore’s Domino plant is working overtime as raw sugar pours in from Mexico

Under the neon Domino Sugars sign in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a century-old refinery steadily produces the crucial ingredient in American candy, soda and other foods. The already busy plant soon might need to burn even more calories. Unusually bad weather around the country ruined both U.S. sugar beet and sugar cane crops last year, leading government officials to seek an 80 percent increase in raw sugar imports from Mexico. …