EU Sugar Committee Will Vote on Freeing Up Supplies on Feb. 24

The European Union’s sugar management committee plans to vote Feb. 24 on a proposal to allow more sugar imports and the sale of so-called out-of-quota sweetener on the domestic market.

The plans were announced by EU farm Commissioner Dacian Ciolos to EU farm ministers meeting in Brussels today, European Commission spokesman Roger Waite said by phone today. The sugar management committee oversees the internal sugar market and subsidies for production and its decisions are then passed for approval to the commission, the EU’s executive arm.

Under EU rules, local sugar producers can sell a limited quantity for food use in the 27-nation bloc. The commission is proposing to scrap a levy on 500,000 metric tons of out-of-quota sugar and allow it to be sold in the EU, Waite said by e-mail today. The commission is also proposing a tender system that will allow for additional sugar imports, he said.

“Refiners and sugar users in parts of Europe have genuine problems with access to supplies of sugar at the moment, and the commission is therefore keen to respond, using the tools available to us,” Waite said.

The EU sugar market has “tightened considerably” and companies are having difficulty finding supplies of the sweetener, the Association of the German Confectionery Industry said Feb. 18.

“Our companies have a supply problem with sugar,” Managing Director Torben Erbrath said that day.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-21/eu-sugar-committee-will-vote-on-freeing-up-supplies-on-feb-24.html)