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Ethanol, Mexico and Farm Bill Headline Discussions at Sweetener Colloquium More than 300 processors, food manufacturers and sugar growers met in Tucson, Ariz., earlier this month at IDFA's International Sweetener Colloquium to discuss the pressing issues facing the sweetener industry. Ethanol production, sugar imports from Mexico and the 2007 Farm Bill topped the list of topics that gained the spotlight during the three-day conference.The U.S. sugar program is very important to the dairy processing industry. In 2005, the dairy industry used approximately 1.2 billion pounds of sugar, representing 11% of the total amount of cane and beet sugar used for industrial food processing in the United States. In his keynote address, Dr. Sergio Trindade, president of SE²T International, Ltd. and one of the world's foremost experts on ethanol, shared his thoughts about the impact ethanol production will have on the U.S. sugar market. Although he expects ethanol production to increase, Trindade is skeptical that this will affect the sugar industry in the near future. Brazil and the United States are the only major markets for ethanol, Trindade explained, adding that Brazil is completely self-sufficient. Trindade expects the demand for ethanol to grow slowly in the United States, because the additional infrastructure and vehicles that would use the product are not available yet. The expected integration of the North American sugar industry in 2008 also sparked heated debate during the conference. Participants agreed that once sugar from Mexico is allowed to flow freely into the United States, the U.S. sugar program will have to be modified. Hector Marquez Solis, representative of the Trade and NAFTA Office for the Embassy of Mexico, and Manuel Molano, research director for the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, discussed possible reactions to increased sugar imports from Mexico and explained how an integrated market could work. "The Mexican and U.S harvest cycles for sugar are complementary," Molano said, adding that the NAFTA market could be even more efficient if it is open to world sugar. On the final day of the conference, the participants focused on the Farm Bill. Sugar industry representatives, such as Jack Roney, director of economics and policy analysis for the American Sugar Alliance, believe that continuing the current policy "provides the best potential to avoid further shrinking of the domestic sugar-producing industry." Dairy processors and other sugar users would like the Farm Bill to include a more market-oriented sugar program, according to Randy Green, president of the Sweetener Users Association. "Sugar users are ready to work with the sugar producers and processors to develop meaningful, workable and equitable reforms," Green said. At the end of the three-day conference, participants agreed that there are many challenges ahead for all involved in the sugar industry. Sugar users reaffirmed the importance of having a domestic sugar-producing industry that can reliably supply domestic demands. In turn, the sugar growers agreed that they were willing to work with the users to address their concerns. To view presentations made at Colloquium click here. For additional information about the International Sweetener Colloquium, contact Helen Medina, IDFA manager of international affairs, at 202-220-3507.
Posted February 26, 2007
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