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MITCHELL, Neb., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- If you feel the Easter
Bunny has a laid an egg with higher candy prices this year, don't
blame the sugar farmer.
That's the observation of Robert Busch, a sugarbeet farmer from
Mitchell, Nebraska. "Wholesale refined sugar prices are down
-- way down," Busch said.
"Since the start of the 1996 Farm Bill three and a half
years ago, the producer prices -- what we farmers get -- are down
right at 26 percent. When stock market prices are down even a
fraction of that much, it's page one news and the lead item on the
television news. But you're not hearing as much about the family
farmers who grow sugar taking the big hit they're taking," he
said.
During this same period that wholesale prices for refined sugar
have fallen, prices for sugar-containing products have continued
their rise. Cereal is up 6.6 percent, cookies and cakes are up
almost 8 percent, candy is up another 7 percent and ice cream is
up more than 9 percent.
These are figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Busch noted.
"None of the savings on sugar prices have been passed on
to the consumer," Busch said. "Even the retail price of
a bag of sugar at the grocery store has gone up slightly," he
said.
"So when you buy those candy Easter eggs for the kids --
or yourself -- remember that it's not the efficient American sugar
farmer who is benefitting from the higher price you pay,"
Busch said. "The irony of the situation is that the same
companies that are charging you more for candy and other sweetened
products are the same ones who want to devastate the thousands of
American farmers who produce sugar even more by ending U.S. sugar
policy."
Visit www.sugaralliance.org
for more information about U.S. sugar policy.
Contact: Joseph Terrell of American
Sugar Alliance, 703-351-5055
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