Sweetener firms urge immediate TRQ increase

   The Sweetener Users Association has continued its campaign to get the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase the country’s tariff-rate quota for raw and refined sugar imports.
   “World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates sharply illustrate the need for a substantial and immediate increase in the tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for raw and refined sugar, as well as a reallocation of existing TRQs and other steps, in order to assure adequate supplies at reasonable prices during the balance of this fiscal year and into the next season,” the trade group said in a letter Wednesday to Michael Scuse, acting undersecretary of USDA’s farm and foreign agricultural services.
   Compared to projections made as recently as March, the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates have reduced total U.S. supplies for 2011/12 by 250,000 short tons, raw value (STRV). This reduction includes a decrease in expected imports from Mexico of 385,000 STRV. Ending stocks are now projected at just 6.8 percent of total use, well under half the normal level “even under the most conservative assumptions,” the association said.
   “Especially at this point in the season, one must expect that any TRQ will include around a 10 percent shortfall, so amounts need to be adjusted for this reality,” the association said in its letter. “Using USDA’s estimate of total consumption, attaining a stocks-to-use target of 14.5 percent would require a total TRQ increase of 982,000 STRV, while attaining 15.5 percent (the amount that our organization has consistently advocated) would require the TRQ to rise by 1,110,000 STRV.
   “Of the total TRQ increase, we believe a substantial portion should be refined sugar, recognizing that the lost Mexican imports would have included substantial amounts of refined sugar. Through February, imports from Mexico totaled 352,000 metric tons, raw value (MTRV), but only 76,000 MTRV went to refiners. Last year, imports from Mexico to non-reporting entities accounted for 966,000 tons of food use,” the association added.
   The Sweetener Users Association also recommended several additional steps beyond a TRQ increase. It said the USDA should permit early entry of the 2012/13 quota later this year and work with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to reallocate exiting TRQ amounts, “reducing shortfalls to the maximum extent possible.”