Category Archives: The Sugar Beat

Damage Caused by Subsidized Mexican Sugar Comes in Focus

In its latest acreage report, USDA notes that acres of both sugarbeets and sugarcane are down this year – 1.7% and 3.5% respectively.

Since Mexico began flooding the U.S. market with dumped and subsidized product, U.S. prices have fallen, costing U.S. producers an estimated $1 billion on this crop alone. This depressed business environment is leading to contraction by efficient U.S. producers while inefficient Mexican producers seize more and more market share with the aid of unfair trade.

Grower Profile: Ardis Hammock

Her motto has been “Life isn’t a bowl of cherries – it is a bunch of raisins: raisin’ cane, raisin’ kids and raisin’ hope for a better tomorrow.”

A Flood of Sugar Slips Through Broken Promises

Mexico had agreed to redirect shipments of subsidized sugar to other countries instead of the United States. But it is doing the exact opposite of what it promised. Mexico is actually accelerating exports of subsidized sugar to the U.S. and further injuring U.S. sugar producers.

Eight Going on Nine

We wanted to take a moment to thank the 32 members of the Appropriations Committee who stood with America’s sugar farmers. In particular, we wanted to spotlight the four appropriators who made impassioned speeches against Big Candy’s power grab.

It’s Good to be the King

Why are Big Candy lobbyists continuously complaining about sugar farmers and crying poor on Capitol Hill? All the evidence suggests that Candy is King.

A History Lesson Not Worth Reliving

In case you’ve forgotten, May marks the 72nd anniversary of sugar rationing in this country. Sugar was the first crop rationed in 1942, and it was the last commodity removed from the rationing list five years later. Back then, America didn’t have a nationwide domestic sugar industry and the Western States relied on shipments from the Philippines and Hawaii. But the Japanese conquered the Philippines and ships in Hawaii normally used to ship sugar were needed for the war effort.

The Big Dump Could Get Bigger

Here are a few attention grabbers about the record amount of subsidized sugar Mexico dumped onto the U.S. market last year.

• Mexico sent an all-time high 2.1 million tons of sugar to America in FY2013.  For perspective, that’s enough to supply every person in the U.S. with 13 pounds of sugar.
• This was up from 1.1 million tons the year earlier and marked a doubling of Mexico’s share of the U.S. market from 9% to 18%.
• The resulting price decline—U.S. prices have fallen 50% since the end of 2011—will cost U.S. producers $1 billion this year.
• The USDA was forced to spend $278 million in taxpayer money to keep the market from collapsing under the weight of Mexico’s dumped sugar.
• Mexico’s government, which owns and operates 20% of the Mexican sugar industry, is the country’s biggest producer and exporter of sugar.

The fact that an inefficient industry largely controlled by the government strengthened its foothold in America at the expense of U.S. farmers and U.S. taxpayers is alarming.  But apparently, it’s just the beginning.

New USDA data show that Mexico is dumping sugar at an even faster pace this year than last.  In fact, the 1.3 million tons that has arrived in the first seven months of FY2014 is 48% higher than over the same period the year prior.