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Industry warns of crisis: U.S. sugar growers need immediate action as losses mount

Abundant global supplies and limited trade policies have put the U.S. sugar industry on the brink.

Luther Markwart with the American Sugar Alliance tells Brownfield input costs for American farmers have increased 30 percent in the past four years, while sugar prices have only deteriorated, partially because of Brazilian import dumping.

“We’re losing hundreds of dollars an acre,” he explains. “You cannot sustain that for a long time. I’m getting calls from producers saying, hey, I’ve lost over a million dollars just on my beet crop, I’ve got to go talk to my banker this fall. What am I going do?”

He says while the administration is working to implement 301 tariffs, the industry needs action before the next growing season.

“Solutions have to come very quickly in order to be able to finance the crop for this next year and hopefully we’re at the bottom of a trough,” he says. “But the administration and the industry and Congress have to do a lot of things to make sure that we right this ship.”

Markwart says while the One Big Beautiful Bil provided the largest safety net increase for sugar producers in his career, the USDA needs to keep the market in balance before it collapses.

Brownfield interviewed Markwart during the NAFB Convention in Kansas City, Missouri.