EU Sugar Research Articles

Environmental and economic study for a prospective ethanol industry in Fiji

The study was performed to study the effect of producing ethanol from molasses or sugarcane juice to blend with gasoline and produce E10 fuel for the Fijian car fleet. Two cases were developed to assess the economic and environmental impacts of producing ethanol from these feedstocks and blending with imported motor spirit. It was found to offer many benefits such as Fiji can earn approximately FJ$ 7.2 million and save 22,730 tCO2 emissions annually with providing employment to many. The continuous increase in the importation of motor spirit demands the biofuel policy to be reviewed to encourage (E10) blending locally. Conversion of sugarcane juice to ethanol directly could sustain the current income generated from sugar and molasses exported. This sounds to be future solution to sustain the industry after the end of EU sugar quota and if the sugar price offered thereafter are not profitable.

The Impact of an EU–US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement on Biofuel and Feedstock Markets

AbstractWe assess the impact of a potential TTIP bilateral free trade agreement on the EU and US bio‐economies (feedstock, biofuels, by‐products, and related competing crops) and major trade partners in these markets. The analysis develops a multi‐market model that incorporates bilateral trade flows (US to EU, EU to US, and similarly with third countries) and is calibrated to the OECD‐FAO baseline for 2013–2022 to account for recent policy decisions. The major policy reforms from a TTIP involve tariff and TRQ liberalisation and their direct contractionary impact on US sugar supply, EU biofuel production, and indirect negative effect on US high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) production. EU sugar and isoglucose production expand along with US ethanol and biodiesel and oilseed crushing. EU sugar would flow to the US, US biofuels and vegetable oil to the EU. We further quantify non‐tariff measures (NTM) affecting these trade flows between the EU and the US. EU oilseed production contracts, and EU crushing expands with improving crushing margins following reduced NTM frictions. Our analysis reveals limited net welfare gains with most net benefits reaped by Brazil and not the two trading partners of the TTIP.

Restructuring the Swazi Sugar Industry: The Changing Role and Political Significance of Smallholders

Since Independence, the contribution of Swazi smallholder farmers to sugar production has grown greatly. This is in part due to a change in the political support that the farmers have received from the Swazi state. Initially viewed with suspicion and as a challenge to royal hegemony, smallholder sugar cane production is now seen as a crucial means of overcoming rural poverty in Swaziland’s poorest region, the semi-arid lowveld. Provision of irrigation water is vital for successful sugar cane production on the co-operatively managed farms that are necessary to achieve the economies of scale in irrigated sugar production. Threats to their profitability arising from increasingly volatile markets facing Swaziland’s sugar industry since changes to the EU Sugar Protocol in 2005 undermine their capacity for co-operative governance and challenge their long-term viability. EU support to facilitate adjustment to the new sugar market has led to increased sugar cane production by smallholders. The paper argues that the two big dam projects that are at the heart of the new irrigation regions are politically ‘too big to fail’, which has committed the Swazi state to the long-term support of smallholders to ensure repayment of loans to build the dams. At the same time, the success of commercial small-scale sugar cane production poses challenges to the Swazi model of customary land tenure. Although emblematic of autocratic royal power, it also – in the processes of land and water development for commercial smallholder sugar cane production – suggests limits to how that power may be deployed in the changing relationships between Swazi elites and their corporate partners and the diverse classes of rural stakeholders.

Global agricultural trade liberalization: Is Sub-Saharan Africa a gainer or loser?

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the potential impact of agricultural trade liberalization on Sub-Saharan Africa. We used the Agricultural Trade and Policy Simulation Model to estimate the potential effects of agricultural trade liberalization, mainly in the US and EU, on the world-market prices of agricultural commodities. We then used the estimated price changes to assess the impact of these reforms on net-food importers as well as other Sub-Saharan African countries that enjoy preferential trade agreements with the EU and US. The results indicate that the world market prices of all commodities imported by Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to rise while the prices of the key export commodities of the region would either decline or remain unchanged. Given that the prices of major food commodities are expected to rise, net-food-importing countries will experience increasing import bill, thus leading to welfare loss. Major Sub-Saharan Africa sugar exporters who are beneficiaries of preferential agreements such as the EU sugar protocol and US AGOA initiative will become losers as preferences erode due to global liberalization. Thus, the region is expected to generally become a net loser from the current WTO reform modalities.

EU Quota Sugar Market Concentration – the Main Drivers of EU Sugar Market

EU Quota Sugar Market Concentration – the Main Drivers of EU Sugar Market

European Sugar Market - Impact of Quota System

The European agricultural market has been criticized for its heavy regulations and subsidization. The sugar market is one of the most regulated ones; however, this will change radically in 2017 when the current system of production quotas will end. The aim of this paper is to present the basic characteristics of the EU quota sugar market. The analysis identifies the main drivers of EU sugar market and their position within the EU sugar market. The paper identifies especially those drivers/companies/alliances which take control over the EU sugar production realized under the quota production system. The paper also highlights the level of EU sugar market concentration and also identifies those countries and companies which are the main leaders in the sugar production area realized under the quota system. Based on the results deriving from the paper, it is possible to characterize the EU sugar market as a heavily concentrated one – nearly 75% (10 mil. tonnes) of the quota is controlled by five multinational companies only; these companies are operating more than 50% of all the available sugar plants located in the EU. These multinational alliances are also in control of the production capacities of their subsidiaries. In most countries, this causes serious problems as the given quota is controlled by one or two producers only. The EU sugar market is extremely concentrated especially if we take into consideration the location of each alliance’s headquarters. The majority of production capacities are under (the) control of especially German and French companies. These two countries are also the main beneficiaries in relation to the EU sugar production quota system.

Isoglucose: what are its prospects post-quotas?

After the end of the EU sugar quota system from 1 October 2017, expansion of isoglucose production will be possible. Currently production is limited to 720,000 t in nine EU countries, which is divided among six producers. Production is concentrated in Central and Southeastern Europe, far away from the main consumption areas, where high sugarbeet yields make sugar production very competitive. The possibilities for isoglucose production expansion are discussed. An 1 mn t production increase, to about 2 mn t of sugar equivalent, seems likely after 2017 despite the high beet sugar production surplus currently seen on the EU market.

The multiplier effects of the Finnish sugar sector

Background information on the economic role of industries is crucial to policy and decision makers due to the involvement of public financing. At the provincial and municipal level, the economic role of industries is crucial for employment and tax revenues that sustain the livelihood of the provinces and municipalities in Finland. This study employed an input-output model (IO model) to answer the question on the linkages between the sugar sector with the different industries in the economy and how much production, value-added and employment would be lost if the sugar sector in Finland would disappear totally. The IO-model would produce the direct, indirect and induced economic effects usually referred to as the multiplier effects of the sugar sector. The gross output of sugar beet production is approximated at about € 33million, and the value-added sugar beet production is estimated at € 17.2 million. The output of the sugar factories is approximated to be € 165.7 million, and the value-added is estimated at € 39.6 million. Even though the effects of primary sugar beet production and sugar factory production including multiplier effects seem rather small compared to the total effects at the regional level, the actual effects are felt at the municipalities level in the form of decreasing tax revenues and unemployment if the sugar sector in Finland disappears and is not substituted for by other forms of production and industry. The output effects of the sugar chain production including sugar beet production, sugar factories and sugar utilizing industries totals € 14 371.0 million when indirect multiplier effects € 8 258.3 million in addition to direct effects € 6 112.7 million are taken into account. The value-added effects of the sugar chain production totals € 4 451.5 million when indirect value-added effects € 2 857.7 million in addition to direct value-added effects € 1 593.8 are taken into account. The employment effects of the sugar chain production totals 58 733 persons as the indirect employment effects 37 979 persons in addition to direct effects 20 754 persons are taken into account. As far as employment effects are concerned, the number of employees does not refer to full-time employees, but included also all those who are involved at any stages of the sugar chain production. The indirect effects include multiplier effects due to both household spending and intermediate input purchases. Hence, if the sugar utilizing industries are included in the production chain, the multiplier effects are considerable. There is data to prove that without domestic production, the sugar price is higher for Ireland compared to the other EU member states due to imperfections in the EU sugar market after the reform of the EU sugar regime in 2006. The sugar price for consumers in Ireland is the highest compared to the United Kingdom (UK), Finland and Germany. The UK and Finland are not self-sufficient in producing sugar for the domestic market, but Germany has been always producing over its self-sufficiency limit. Therefore, the consumers in Germany enjoy the lowest price for sugar compared to Ireland, Finland and the UK. Due to the existing domestic sugar production in Finland and the UK, the price of sugar is lower in these countries compared to Ireland.

Performing a more-than-human material imagination during fieldwork: muddy boots, diarizing and putting vitalism on video

Sarah Whatmore has argued that ‘[t]here is an urgent need to supplement the familiar repertoire of humanist methods that rely on generating talk and text with experimental practices that amplify other sensory, bodily and affective registers and extend the company and modality of what constitutes a research subject’. But how does one do this? What kinds of research practices are useful? And more specifically, what kinds of methods can help to conjure and enact a vitalist materialism in the field? This essay offers a brief and critical account of how the author attempted to perform a vitalist materialism through fieldwork practices undertaken in 2007. Research into Caribbean agronomic responses to the EU Sugar Reform involved ‘muddy boots’, diary writing, and video documentation methods. Participating in the thick of agronomic experiments facilitated a greater sensitivity to and awareness of the interactions and miscommunications involved between different vital agencies and video provided an evocative way of communicating more-than-human materialities. In sum, these methods were successful with regard to Whatmore’s call, but proved to be more useful as memory-prompting tools. This author found that practising vitalist fieldwork did not mean that one had to enrol fantastical new methods to reveal or get at ‘the vital’. Rather, the cultivation of a vitalist geographical imagination that was receptive and open to the liveliness of materialities and the significance of relational becomings was much more important.

Isoglucose – How significant is the threat to the EU sugar industry?

The EU is about to abolish the sugar – and the isoglucose – quota system in 2016/17. Isoglucose made from corn occupies about 50% of the US sweetener market while its market share in the EU caloric sweetener market is less than 5%. Against this background, this paper analyses the economics of isoglucose production in Europe in order to understand its competitiveness vis-à-vis sugar. Key results: (1) Isoglucose will become a rather competitive product. The EU sugar industry will have to give up about 40% of its current processing and profit margin in order to sell sugar at the same price as isoglucose will be traded; (2) Once industrial sugar users move to isoglucose, they will tend to be “hooked-in,” giving the sugar industry a strong incentive to defend its market share; and (3) Since only about 30% of the current sugar market is able to switch to isoglucose, the sugar industry has the option to practice a mixed calculation. In an extreme scenario, the industry may even opt to cross-subsidize sales. Therefore it’s not clear whether investors in isoglucose will be able to gain a major market share in Europe.

Negotiating Fairness in the EU Sugar Reform: The Ethics of European-Caribbean Sugar Trading Relations

All markets are embedded in ethical relations and moral discourses. This is often forgotten or ignored in alternative agrofood studies, where there has been a frequent assumption that ‘ethics’ can be inserted into markets (Trentmann, 2007), or are only acknowledged in products certified as ‘ethical’ and suchlike (Barnett, Cloke, Clarke, & Malpass, 2005). This paper takes a different approach, choosing to explore how a mainstream commodity, widely associated with the development of capitalist agriculture (Mintz, 1985), is unavoidably embedded in both a set of moral discourses and a web of ethical relations (Goodman, Maye, & Holloway, 2010). Specifically, I offer a critical reading of the moral discourses that circulated between the Caribbean Sugar Protocol signatories and the European Union in the context of the 2006–2009 European Union Sugar Reform. The paper looks at how both Caribbean and European actors negotiated ‘fairness’ and in doing so, reconfigured their historical relationship. I discuss how a relational—or ethical—approach to fairness was evoked in certain instances, disrupting the European Union's (EU) neoliberal rhetoric. Contributing to the literature around ‘moral geographies’ (Jackson & Ward, 2008; Proctor et al., 1999; Smith, 1999) and also to agrofood studies, I conclude by affirming the significance of a relational approach to how the ‘fairness’ of the EU Sugar Reform might be comprehended and to how the ethics of neoliberal market reform can be more generally understood and critiqued.

Development of the EU and world sugar markets in 2011

Development of the EU and world sugar markets in 2011

The fascinating sweet world of sugar technology, never a dull moment

An overview of the scientific career of the author in the sugar industry is given. His PhD study on the alkaline degradation of monosaccharides formed the basis of additional research efforts to better understand the behavior of sucrose and invert sugar under process conditions. NIRS analysis of process samples and the use of HPLC/HPIC techniques are examples for development of up-to-date, accurate, faster and/or more distinguishing methods. The technical quality of sugar beet has received attention since the recent reform of EU sugar regime. As one of the first the author has used dextranase to solve filtration problems in juice purification. Anaerobic digestion of beet pulp and raw juice concentration are briefly presented. Knowledge management (KM) is seen as the key tool to capture and transfer the knowledge as it is generated by R&D efforts.

Does the EU sugar policy reform increase added sugar consumption? An empirical evidence on the soft drink market

Whereas National Health authorities recommend a decrease in the consumption of 'added' sugar, a reform on the sugar market will lead to a 36% decrease of the sugar price in the EU. Using French data on soft drinks purchases, this paper investigates the anticipated impact of this reform on the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. The reform of the EU sugar policy leads to a decrease in regular soft drink prices by 3% and varies across brands. To assess substitution within this food category, we use a random-coefficients logit model that takes into account a large number of differentiated products and heterogeneity in consumers' behavior. Results suggest that price changes would lead to an increase in market shares of regular products by 7.5% and to substitutions between brands to the benefit of products with the highest sugar content. On the whole, it would raise consumption of regular soft drinks by more than 1 litre per person per year and consumption of added sugar by 124 g per person per year, this increase being larger in households composed of overweight and obese individuals.

EU and world sugar markets in 2010

2010 started with world sugar prices at an exceptionally high level. Until May 2010, prices decreased significantly, but began to rise again. By the end of December, they reached a 30-year high. Also the white sugar premium temporarily reached a record high in 2010. In the EU, preferential imports fell short of expectations due to high world market prices and the domestic price remained about 20% above the reference price. The sugarbeet yield in 2010 was much lower than in the bumper crop of 2009. Sugar production in the EU in marketing year 2010/11, however, will still be higher than the aggregate production quota. Due to fears of a shortage on the domestic market, no final decision has been taken to ease restrictions on exports of out-of-quota sugar. Key words: sugar market, EU, world sugar market, sugar production, sugar consumption

The impact of the EU sugar trade reform on poor households in developing countries: A general equilibrium analysis

We use a modified version of the applied general equilibrium model GTAP, called GTAP MH, to evaluate the impact of a reduction in the EU's support price for sugar on income distribution of African households. For LDC countries, non-ACP but participant in the EBA initiative a +2% change is indicated in term of income generation across all ten social strata identified within GTAP MH framework, with positive percentage changes in supply prices at household level of endowment commodities, and positive percentage changes in price indices for private household expenditures. The big losers will be those countries that would no longer be able to compete at an international level as a result of the lost preferences.

The EU sugar reform and the responses of Caribbean sugar producers

ABSTRACTEconomic geographers and political ecologists have developed valuable analyses of the ways in which the effects of economic globalisation and macro-economic ‘one-size-fits-all’ policies are unevenly distributed. Unpacking the global-local nexus, geographers have argued that such policies evoke heterogeneous responses and results. This article contributes to this body of work by discussing the effect of the European Union Sugar Reform for two specific Caribbean localities: Barbados and St Kitts. It first highlights how political decisions made in one locality have significant ramifications for places and peoples at a distance. Second, it suggests the importance of recognising our global interconnectivity and in considering how our responsibilities to/for distant strangers emerge through our historically-embedded production, trading and consumption habits. Third, this analysis shows the integral way in which geography matters; how one unilateral change in a common sugar trading policy can generate a multiplicity of different effects and responses in different places.

Developments in the EU and world sugar markets in 2009

The article reviews the developments on the sugar market in 2009. After the introduction, it starts with an overview of production and consumption in all world regions. Production shortfalls in major producing countries led to an increase of the world market price to a 28 year high. For the current season, a further deficit is expected. The next chapter informs about developments on the EU market, where the implementation phase of the 2006 reform ended and a new regulation for sugar imports from ACP countries entered into force. The last chapter discusses model based forecasts of the world sugar market over the coming decade and determining factors of the medium term development of production and consumption of sugar.

Restructuring the EU–ACP sugar regime: Out of the strong there came forth sweetness

ABSTRACT In 2005 the EU instigated the most substantial reform to the sugar sector since the UK acceded in 1973 and just two years later caused consternation among the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries by denouncing the 34-year long Sugar Protocol. In contrast to existing literature, which has taken a snapshot of the post-reform period and identified ‘winners and losers’ accordingly, this article examines the processes of capital accumulation in the industry and the legacies these have left. It argues that despite defeat in a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute case, concentration and diversification in the EU sugar industry has enabled its leading corporations to prosper after reform, while divestment in the ex-colonies has left producers in the ACP facing difficulties of adjustment far in excess of plain terms of trade losses. Further, it also reveals why EU reform was not solely a response to WTO legislation but rather, because of the relationship of sugar to wider economic fortunes, resulted from an assiduous attempt by the EU Trade Commission to press the sector into a WTO-compatible Common Agricultural Policy.

European Sugar Reforms

This paper provides an overview of the EU's sugar regime and its trading relationship with ACP sugar producers.