05/03/06 Another threat to the sugar industry

Candy makers and the other large buyers of sugar will propose to a Senate committee next week a plan that would pay cash subsidies when the price of sugar drops below a certain level. Industry insiders say those sugar users want to lower the raw sugar price but under the current US sugar program there are limits on domestic and imported sugar. That program costs the US taxpayers nothing. Longtime Washington DC agriculture and political writer Jerry Hagstrom says while this debate is heating up sugar is already a hot commodity. HAGSTROM "The loss of the sugar in the hurricane in Louisiana and also the use of sugar for ethanol in other parts of the world sugar is becoming more valuable." And if sugar is becoming scarce large users of it, like candy makers, want to do all they can to keep the overall price down. That could put many sugar beet growers out of business. HAGSTROM "There's always been a dream among the sweetener users in the United States that they could get this really cheap sugar from Brazil but if the Brazilians are going to use it for ethanol, Brazilians want to continue ethanol because they particularly want to retain the market for ethanol in Brazil that means that sugar is not going to be available to them." What happens in Washington DC over the next year will tell us a lot about the future of the Idaho sugar industry. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott