| FARMERS are fighting against a European Commission proposal
that could completely undermine the European sugar market, putting 9,000
UK sugar beet growers at risk.
A crisis meeting of the sugar supply trade, a lobby of MPs by the whole
industry including sugar cane producers, and a lobby of EC officials in
Brussels are taking place this week to fight the threat.
The plan to allow the world's 48 poorest countries free market access
into Europe - known as the "Everything But Arms" proposal -
could allow between two and five million tonnes of extra sugar on to the
European refined sugar market of 12 million tonnes.
It could force severe cuts in the amount of sugar the UK is allowed to
produce under the EU quota system. More than 10 million tonnes of sugar
beet is harvested in the UK, which is processed into 1.5 million tonnes of
refined sugar.
A meeting called by the National Farmers' Union and British Sugar
involving representatives from the whole sugar supply chain took place
yesterday at the East of England Showground in Peterborough to discuss the
situation.
NFU Sugar Beet Committee Chairman Matt Twidale also travelled to
Brussels to lobby Commission officials.
And MPs from key sugar producing areas will be lobbied by the industry
at Westminster today.
Mr Twidale, who will be among those lobbying MPs, said: "The
implications of this proposal are both serious and wide-ranging.
"The European Commission must not agree to proposals that will
leave the future of thousands of sugar beet producers in such grave
uncertainty." |