Government Study Says U.S. Sugar Policy Has Cost Manufacturing Jobs

Issued last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce report, "Employment Changes in U.S. Food Manufacturing: The Impact of Sugar Prices" found that employment in industries that make sugar-containing products has decreased due to U.S. sugar policy.

"The government's analysis clearly demonstrates that U.S. sugar policy has had a detrimental impact on manufacturing jobs," said Clay Hough, IDFA senior vice president and general counsel. "It is in the interest of the entire sugar industry to work together to develop a sugar policy that addresses both the concerns of growers and manufacturers."

Findings in the study include:

For every sugar growing and harvesting job saved through high U.S. sugar prices, approximately three confectionery-manufacturing jobs are lost.

The high cost of U.S. sugar has produced an incentive for the confectionery industry to relocate to Canada, where sugar prices are less than half of U.S. prices. In 2005, the House Appropriations Committee directed the Secretary of Commerce "to report on whether jobs in food manufacturing, cane refining and related industries have been lost as a result of the movement of manufacturing facilities offshore due, in material part, to the differential between U.S. and world sugar prices, and if applicable, the report shall include an estimate of the number of jobs lost." A copy of the report can be found at http://ita.doc.gov/media/Publications/pdf/sugar06.pdf.

Posted February 21, 2006