SUGAR - THE NOT SO SWEET SIDE...

Sugar is a product that most of us consume on a daily basis. Yet how many of us spend any real time pondering the source of this sweet product… Sugar is produced in more than 100 countries around the world, from Europe through to the tropics. Around two thirds of all this sugar is produced from sugar cane with the remainder coming from sugar beet.

Sugar – the problem

Unfair trade - While farmers in the developing world might expect to be very competitive in the world market as a result of their ability to produce sugar at relatively low cost, they are unable to compete on fair and level terms with many western sugar producers.

Subsidies and Tariffs - The European Union, the United States and Japan heavily subsidize domestic production and maintain high tariffs on imports. This combination of tariffs and subsidies has led to overproduction by their own producers, and a dumping of excess sugar onto world markets which has depressed global sugar prices.

The combination of low returns and general fluctuations in world sugar prices makes it very hard for the most disadvantaged of producers – the small-scale sugar growers of the developing world – to earn a living wage from their harvests.

The effect of "free trade" - Within international trade bodies, especially in the World Trade Organization, non-subsidizing sugar producing countries have long argued that because these large Western sugar markets overpay their local producers and don’t let cane sugar imports in (aside from some imports from a few selected trading partners), the rest of the world’s producers receive lower prices than they would under truly free trade conditions. The WTO recently sided with a group of cane sugar exporting nations (led by Brazil and Australia) and ruled the European Union’s Sugar Régime and it’s accompanying ACP-EU Sugar Protocol (whereby a group of African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries receive preferential access to the European sugar market) to be illegal.

The EU has now begun a process of tariff reductions as well as price cuts for it’s local producers. The US sugar industry is the next target for reform but sugar lobbyists there – renowned for their deep pockets and their willingness to donate large sums of money to both major political parties – present a major obstacle to change.

Environmental problems

Sugar production is believed to be responsible for more environmental damage to the planet than any other crop.

Vast habitats rich in plants and animals, including tropical rainforests, have been cleared to make way for sugar to be grown. Large areas of soil have been eroded and degraded through sugar production.

Huge amounts of herbicides and pesticides are sprayed on to most of the world’s sugar crops; in the most local example, the runoff of toxic chemicals from sugar cane is blamed for the extensive destruction of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Further afield, phosphorus-rich runoff from sugar plantations is credited with destroying much of the Florida Everglades.

The burning and processing of sugar crops can also cause serious pollution of the ground, waterways and the air, while intensive sugar cultivation can seriously deplete water supplies.

Low prices for sugar farmers in the developing world also place an increasing burden on their local environments; without sufficient returns for their crops, environmental standards are inevitably compromised

The Solution – Fairer trade, organic production

Fairer trading terms are needed to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged farmers and to help them to better protect their environments.

Trade Aid purchases its sugar from some of the lowest-impact sugar producers in the world, and through our ability to trade directly with co-operatives under fairer terms we can most effectively address the need to provide better returns to growers.

At the same time, our trade rewards organic production and supports a more sustainable method of sugar production.