The new policy is aimed at restoring balance to the U.S. sugar market, which has been reeling from historically low prices, by reinstating the Secretary of Agriculture's ability to limit the marketings of U.S. sugar processors during times of surplus. The policy involves no payments whatsoever to American sugar growers or processors and can be operated at no cost to the U.S. Treasury.

Ray VanDriessche, a Bay City area farmer and president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association (ASGA), said: ``We commend Chairman Combest, Ranking Member Stenholm, and all the Members of the House Agriculture Committee for having the wisdom to restore U.S. sugar policy to its successful form of the 1990 Farm Bill, which provided the Secretary with a domestic inventory management tool and resulted in stable sugar prices for farmers and consumers, at no cost to the government.'' ASGA represents 12,000 sugarbeet growers and their families nationwide.

``We are reluctant to face the prospect of limited marketings in some years, but our sugar import problems leave us no choice,'' VanDriessche said. ``World Trade Organization (WTO) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) rules force us to import as much as 1.5 million tons of sugar per year -- roughly 15 percent of our consumption -- whether we need that sugar or not. In addition, we have world dump-market sugar leaking into this market from Canada and Mexico, further depressing our price.''

U.S. wholesale refined sugar prices are running at 22-year lows, nearly 30 percent below levels that prevailed in 1996, at the start of the current Farm Bill. The 1996 Farm Bill suspended the Secretary's ability to limit domestic marketing of sugar. Seventeen beet and cane mills have closed permanently since 1996 and the remaining producers are in severe financial difficulty.

``American sugar farmers have received no payments from the federal government in decades and we have not asked for any, '' VanDriessche said. ``We want to continue to derive our returns from the marketplace, not from the U.S. Treasury. This legislation, and the resolution of our import-quota circumvention problems, will restore balance to the domestic sugar marketplace and enable the surviving farmers, like myself, the opportunity to stay in business.'' The inventory management measure will not take effect until the import-quota circumvention problems with Canada and Mexico are resolved.

``This inventory management mechanism is very simple,'' VanDriessche said. ``Growers will still have the flexibility to plant as much sugarbeets or sugarcane as we wish, and our processors can produce as much sugar from that beet and cane as they wish. At some times, however, processors who have increased production in excess of the rate of growth in U.S. demand may have to postpone the sale of some sugar, and store that sugar at their own expense until the market requires it.''

``We are hopeful that Congress will pass the House Agriculture Committee's plan,'' VanDriessche said. ``It is the only one that will restore balance to the U.S. market and economic vitality to depressed farming areas such as mine and ensure stable prices for American sugar consumers at no cost to the government.''

ASGA is a member of the American Sugar Alliance, the national coalition of growers, processors and refiners of sugarbeets, sugarcane and corn for sweetener.

For more information about U.S. sugar policy visit American Sugar Alliance at http://www.sugaralliance.org .