News

Sugar producers bring trade concerns to International Sugar Symposium

Sugar producers are renewing calls for changes to federal trade policy as they continue to face tremendous financial pressures.

Luther Markwart is the Executive Vice President for the American Sugarbeet Growers Association.

“I’ve worked in sugar professionally for 47 years, and when you look across the scale of all the various commodities, including sugar, these are some of the most difficult times I think that they’ve seen,” he shares.

He says U.S. sugar trade policies haven’t been updated since 2000 and extremely low world prices have made them ineffective.   

“Sugar is an essential ingredient in the nation’s food supply, and we have to have an adequate supply of domestically American-made sugar,” he says. “We’re supporting a hundred and fifty-one thousand jobs across the country.”

The American Sugar Alliance and more than 100 members of Congress are urging the U.S. Trade Representative to open a Section 301 investigation into unfair foreign sugar practices.

Farmers and industry leaders are meeting with lawmakers and federal officials this weekend as part of the International Sugar Symposium to discuss their concerns.