CARIBBEAN SUGAR INDUSTRY LEADERS HIGHLIGHT BREXIT OPPORTUNITY IN LONDON, UK
Sugar Association of the Caribbean Board Members met with representatives from ACP Sugar producing countries on 6 July in London, to discuss future market access to UK, post-BREXIT.
Chairman of the ACP/LDC Group, Philip de Pass, outlined developments to date:
“EU reforms of the sugar market concluded last year have seen imports of cane sugar from traditional suppliers collapse. They are already down 55% compared with 2017/18 and 74% compared with 2013/14. ACP countries have been left substantially worse off than anticipated and the accompanying measures programme designed to help them has not had the desired impact. BREXIT is a once in a lifetime opportunity for traditional suppliers to the UK to retain a share of their traditional market for sugar.”
Sugar Association of the Caribbean Board Representative, Mac McLachlan commented:
“CARICOM sugar producers are now faced with the prospect of the loss of opportunity to export to their largest historic market – the UK. BREXIT offers UK policy makers an opportunity to support development partners in the Caribbean and wider ACP – and to create a level playing field for cane and beet refiners, where domestic production constraints permit a market environment which continues to provide UK consumers a continuing choice of cane sugar, or to lose this opportunity at the expense of some of the poorest farmers in the world.”
ENDS