Open markets could boost sugar

1 December 1999



Open markets could boost sugar

WORLD prices of raw sugar could be raised by as much as 40% if trade barriers and subsidies were removed to allow exporters access to more markets.

This is according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE).

Australia is one of the top sugar exporters and has joined other leading producers in lobbying for greater access to protected markets such as the USA, the European Union, Russia, Canada, South Korea and Japan.

Domestic protection meant consumers in many countries paid a premium for sugar, while export subsidies helped to depress world prices, ABARE said.

• Sugar producers fight barriers, FWi, 24 November, 1999
• Sugar prices to slide further?, FWi, 08 March, 1999
• World sugar prices set to rise, FWi, 14 July, 1997
  
• Financial Times 01/12/99 page 36