Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett on recently told the members of the 39th Joint Council of the African, Caribbean Pacific Group of States – European Union (ACP-EU) that the situation is extremely serious and untenable regarding the drop in the price for raw sugar.
Accompanying Minister Rodrigues-Birkett to the ACP-EU Council Meetings was Guyana’s Ambassador to Brussels, Dr Patrick Gomes, who also chairs the Ambassadorial Working Group on the Future Perspectives of the ACP.
The meeting which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, saw approximately 100 representatives from member states attending to discuss several issues of importance.
She pointed out that an ISO study on “EU sugar market post-2017” released a fortnight ago, reaches similar conclusions and observes that the EU may lose its current status as one of the world’s largest sugar importers and that the Least Developed. Countries (LDCS)/ACP sugar producers may have to look at regional, as well as world markets to export their sugar.
Minister Rodrigues-Birkett stated that while the EU study made a forecast that sugar prices would fall to around 400 euros by 2023, it must be noted that prices have already dropped sharply and are now in the region of 500 euros per tonne, some 30 per cent less than the price the same time last year.
“This situation is extremely serious and untenable. Small and medium sized growers in ACP countries already have to cease activities with considerable political, social and environmental negative impact. In one major ACP producing country, Government has taken the decision last week to provide direct support to growers for two years. You will appreciate that such budgetary support cannot be sustained over a long period,” she explained.
Overlooked
The Minister observed that in spite of warnings, the EU has completely overlooked the impact of its domestic Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) proposals on trade and developmental interests and the specific commitment in the Lisbon Treaty to ensure EU Policy Coherence.
“These principles are enshrined in Cotonou, the Economic Partnership Agreements and Everything but Arms Initiative which were intended to protect our small and vulnerable economies,” she observed.
The Minister pleaded that “it would be intolerable and most unfair, under those circumstances, to maintain the specific sugar safeguard clause, which features in the respective EPAs and are applicable only to non-LDC ACP sugar supplying states.” She urged that the EU review the situation in 2017 and adopt appropriate corrective measures to mitigate the impact of quota abolition on countries.
The Foreign Minister also focused on the decision to do away with beet and isoglucose quotas in 2017 despite the consistent submissions made by a majority of stakeholders, including the EU beet growers, the EU processors and the ACP that such a decision should be stalled until 2020.
She pointed to the growing demand for ethanol and the fact that isoglucose production is expected to increase and will replace sugar in selected food consumption uses, following the expiry of isoglucose production quotas in 2017.
“In view of the new challenges which the ACP sugar supplying states are likely to face with the end of the EU quotas in 2017, the EU should seriously consider putting in place new accompanying support measures to enable the ACP sugar producing countries to complete the necessary reform to render their sugar sector competitive,” Minister Rodrigues-Birkett declared.
Acknowledging that research and development, at both field and factory levels, will contribute significantly to supporting the ACP sugar sector, she called for the new Research and Innovation Programme to be endowed with adequate resources to ensure that benefits are fully realised from the results obtained so far.
She also pointed to plans for a Memorandum of Understanding with CIRAD, the French research centre working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues.
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