The European Commission has submitted a draft regulation that will allow European sugar producers to export an additional 500,000 tonnes of sugar.
The move comes in response to worldwide sugar shortages and record prices, which now stand at over EUR500 (US$701.7) per tonne.
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The regular export quota stands at 600,000 tonnes but will be increased for the 2009/10 year, ending 31 July. The Commission said that the quota is then expected to revert to its original level.
“The current situation on the world market is exceptional. With production below consumption and diminishing sugar stocks, sugar prices have risen to unprecedented levels, to the detriment of consumers in poorer countries,” outgoing agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said.
The quota increase comes as the EU concludes the restructuring of its sugar industry, which has been highly subsidised to compete on world markets.
Fischer Boel insisted that the move would not breach the EU’s World Trade Organisation commitments.
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By GlobalData“The price situation on the EU and world market is such that out-of-quota sugar produced in the EU can be exported without violating the EU’s WTO subsidy commitments,” she commented.
