The Sugar Beat

Americans Choose Domestic Sugar Over Imports

Government officials deciding whether or not to increase sugar imports this year received a pretty clear message about foreign sugar from the American public earlier this month.

Seven in 10 American adults said they would rather buy American sugar than foreign sugar, even if imports were slightly cheaper because of subsidies and lower environmental, labor, and safety standards, according to a March 23 Harris Interactive poll.

An identical survey was conducted in 2007 and produced similar results with 75 percent of Americans picking homegrown sugar.

Jack Roney, an economist with the American Sugar Alliance, said the results are particularly interesting since economic factors are so different today than they were two years ago.

“The economy was strong in 2007 and people had far more disposable income to spend at the grocery store, yet we find similar results in 2009 when Americans are stretching every penny,” he said. “Obviously, there are factors at play here that outweigh pricing.”

The biggest factor, Roney concluded, is food safety. “People are still confident that U.S. food products are the safest in the world and they aren’t willing to compromise safety for price,” he said.

Food safety might explain why 91 percent of Americans also placed a high level of importance on the nation’s ability to produce food domestically instead of relying on foreign suppliers. This is up from 88 percent in the 2007 survey.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently deciding whether or not to increase foreign sugar quotas above the 1.3 million tons of sugar America is already importing this year, and Roney hopes the department will consider public opinion before making any decisions.

“The American public clearly wants U.S. sugar producers around,” he explained. “Prices show that the market is adequately supplied, and adding more unneeded foreign sugar to the market will only make things harder on American producers who have been dealing with high input costs and low prices.”

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