Sugar beat famring and sugar production, illutsrative stock photo (source: TASR)
In the upcoming months, one kilogram of sugar may be about 10 cents cheaper, the Sme daily wrote on October 3. From the start of October, the European Union quotas for sugar have ceased to exist, and each country can produce as much of this commodity as it wants.
Sugar refineries forced to hold back production until now due to the quotas will probably flood the European market with sugar (four million tonnes of extra sugar are expected) and its price will go down.
This may be good news for consumers. But on the other hand, smaller sugar plants with higher prices may suffer the consequences and be forced to close down, Sme wrote.
Slovak refineries have prepared for the step
Slovak sugar refineries do not want to comment on this, since they still do not know by how much sugar will be cheaper. However, the price reduction will create a huge pressure on sugar plants, one way or another.
“We have prepared in advance for this, and we invested in technologies and production capacities,” Dušan Janíček, head of external relations of the Slovak Sugar Refineries, told Sme. “We will strive for our prices to be attractive, also compared to countries with a sugar-producing tradition like Germany and France. We would be happy if people also awakened their patriotism and bought sugar from our sugar plants, instead of the foreign ones.”
The Agriculture Ministry noted that they closely follow the abolition of quotas, and they will see how the sugar plants manage the situation. The green diesel scheme should help agriculture companies. Within this scheme, the state returns part of the incise tax from diesel to farmers and agricultural producers.
