EU Agrees To One-Year Cut Of Sugar Quota
15 de março de 2006 The first year under the reformed regime is expected to be difficult for the sugar sector because of oversupply of the market due to limited export possibilities and because in this the effects of the Restructuring Fund will not yet be felt.
The production cut is divided between the Member States using a balanced weighting of the reduction coefficients traditionally used in the sugar sector, and the linear cut laid down in the new Common Market Organization (CMO) Regulation. In calculating the cut in production for 2006/07, special account will also be taken of those countries that undertake large reductions in quota in the first year of the reform through the newly introduced Restructuring Fund.
The quota cuts vary from 8.6% in Latvia and Lithuania to more than 16% in Denmark, Germany, and France. The Commission proposed to reduce sugar production under quota in the first year of the reform in order to relieve the pressure on the market following requests from a number of Member States to do so. Following last year’s WTO panel, this will be the first full year where all EU exports will be designated as subsidized and there fore limited to just 1,273 million tons.
The regulation agreed on the quota cuts also fixes transitional arrangements to take account of the fact that the first year of the new regime will last 15 months. This is so that, in future, the marketing year will run from 1 October to 30 September every year.
Figures approved by the EU sugar management committee indicate a reduction in the total sugar production quota from 17.4 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes, while isoglucose is cut from 507,681 tonnes to 448,023 tonnes, and inulin syrup from 320,718 tonnes to 273,394 tonnes. This creates a reduction in the overall sweetener quota from 18.3 million tonnes to 15.8 million tonnes for 2006/07.
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