Federal Council increases support for sugar production
In view of the low sugar prices, the Federal Council has decided to temporarily increase sugar support. The minimum limit protection for sugar has been set at seven francs per 100 kilograms. The single-crop contribution for sugar beet will increase by 300 francs to 2100 francs per hectare. The changes to the ordinance will now come into force at the beginning of 2019.
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As a result of the abolition of sugar quotas in the EU in the fall of 2017, the EU'sSugar production and the sugar price continued to move closer to the low world market price level. Since free trade has existed between the EU and Switzerland since 2005 for sugar in processed agricultural products, the EU sugar price is transferred to Switzerland. In view of the current low prices, the Federal Council has spoken out in favor of the temporary increase in support for domestic sugar production. In doing so, it is also anticipating a demand made by Parliament. It has commissioned the National Council's Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation to draw up a bill to implement the Bourgeois parliamentary initiative (15 479), which calls for a permanent minimum price for sugar to be enshrined in law.
With the application of minimum border protection, border protection will increase from the current two francs per 100 kilograms to at least seven francs per 100 kilograms from January 1, 2019 to September 30, 2021. The individual crop contribution for sugarbeet will increase from 1800 to 2100 francs per hectare from 2019 to 2021. The Swiss sugar industry will thus be given three years to further improve its competitiveness. In collaboration with the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG), it will commission an external study on the optimization potential of beet cultivation and sugar production in Switzerland.
On this basis and taking other factors into account, a strategy process will then be launched that will also involve the sugar processing industry. The Swiss sugar industry will also contribute to the short-term measures. It will use the reserves earmarked for this purpose in full to support prices over the next three years. This coordinated approach is intended to create more competitive structures in the sugar industry in the long term. Sugar industry be achieved.
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