LONDON—Once a week, a bulk freighter sails up the River Thames to a refinery in the docks of east London to offload tonnes of brown raw cane sugar - just over half the traffic prior to tighter EU rules introduced in 2009.
Now, the near 140-year-old Tate & Lyle Sugars refinery says it can see light at the end of the tunnel as Brexit offers the hope of a repeal of European sugar legislation it says is harming its business.
Best known in Britain for producing Lyle's Golden Syrup, a household brand sold in distinctive green and gold tins since 1882, TLS argues against the idea that Brexit will be bad for British business.
"For us the real uncertainty was the status quo," senior vice-president Gerald Mason said.
Mason says being free of European rules will provide the opportunity to bring production back to previous levels and make the company competitive with beet sugar producers at home and across continental Europe.
"Leaving the EU is the biggest opportunity of our lifetime."
TLS, which was split from parent Tate & Lyle Plc when U.S.-based ASR Group bought TLS in 2010, has found itself increasingly on the wrong side of EU rules for the sugar sector.
Tariffs on raw cane sugar entering into the 28-nation bloc are designed to protect Europe's sugarbeet growers and to promote trade with cane growers among a group of former European colonies in Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean.
Those tariffs have long hurt cane refiners such as TLS, who want to buy the cheapest raw material on the market from producers such as Brazil tariff-free.
Source: www.reuters.com