Washington, D.C. – Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) published a notice in the Federal Register increasing the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 raw cane sugar tariff-rate quota (TRQ) by 125,000 metric tons (MT), putting the market at risk for American sugar farmers. This decision is in direct conflict with Farm Bill precedent first set in 2008.
“Minnesota sugarbeet farmers produce the highest quality, most sustainably grown sugar in the world. The Biden Administration's decision to ignore Congressional authority and more than 15 years of precedent undercuts American farmers and puts at risk the strong U.S. sugar policy that our domestic industry relies upon,” said Rep. Finstad, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Agriculture. “Farm and food security is national security, and we must focus on supporting the business of American farm families rather than foreign countries.
“Tonight, President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address is anticipated to lay out actions to target corporate greed as a way to address high food prices. It is abundantly clear that this is all an empty promise." Finstad continued, “In fact, leading into the address, the Biden Administration took unprecedented and illegal action to reward corporate greed by importing more heavily-subsidized foreign sugar into the United States to further pad the pocketbooks of major corporations at the expense of America’s sugarbeet farm families and factory workers.”
Background
Beet sugar production accounts for over half of all U.S. sugar produced and delivers more than $11 billion in value to the economy. Minnesota sugarbeet farmers contribute nearly one-third of the nation’s overall sugarbeet crop.
Domestic sugar policy has long been a cornerstone of the Farm Bill, which, since 2008, has prohibited FAS from taking action to increase the TRQ before April 1 of each fiscal year (the middle of the sugar marketing year while sugar is still being processed), absent an “emergency shortage” of sugar in the U.S. market caused by “war, flood, hurricane, or other natural disaster” – none of which currently apply.