Down on the Farm - Not So Sweet
SUGAR DOES NOT TASTE AS SWEET as it did a few weeks ago to me due to the sugar
reforms that have just been agreed at the meeting with the European ministers
and members of other World trade organisations. Most farmers in this country
would acknowledge that the old sugar regime had to change, but virtually to
wipe out European sugar production does not make sense.
At the present time a ton of sugar beet is worth about £28.60. In four years time this will fall dramatically to approximately £17.00 to £18.00. We can probably just about grow it for that price, but there will be no profit in doing the job, which obviously does not make good economic sense.
The idea was that some of the least developed nations in the World should grow the sugar so they would have means to trade on the Foreign Exchange market, but in reality most of the sugar production will go to Brazil, Thailand and Australia. This will of course be good for the economies of these nations but there is a price to pay. Brazil already produces a vast amount of raw sugar and to increase production land will have to be cleared which will mean further areas of Rain Forest being decimated. It is also well known that the treatment of sugar plantation workers in this country falls far short of acceptable standards and a substantial increase in production would worsen their plight.
The Caribbean will suffer from these new reform measures as historically, when Great Britain had an Empire, the agreement was that sugar cane would be grown there for Britain and as a result, we as a nation, have only ever grown about 50% of what we consume while the rest has been grown in the West Indies and some African nations, thus supporting their economies. The price they are paid is more than the World base price so as to subsidise the production, but if this and sugar production was removed, along with the recent loss in the last couple of years of a considerable proportion of their banana production due to another trade agreement, the already fragile economies may never recover. If no sugar beet is grown on farms here we will probably grow more cereals and this will be so very detrimental for wildlife in our area. As I have said in previous articles, the variation of bird life is always tremendous in a well managed beet crop, and by leaving the previous year's crop residue over the winter you have the bonus of feeding birds and rodents in the harsher months.
It has been calculated that there may be as many as 21,000 people put out of work in this country because of this new regime, but because they all work for small enterprises such as farms, hauliers and suppliers to the industry, the general public appears to know very little about it. If this number of workers was amalgamated in one or two factories, all about to be made redundant, I am sure that there would have been a lot more press coverage about it.
The one hope we have is that the bio fuel industry will take off and that we can then continue to grow beet, not for sugar, but to turn into fuel. Apparently it is reasonably easy to convert existing beet factories for this purpose and I believe that the one near Downham Market may be converted which would mean that farmers in that part of the world would still have an outlet for their crop Ðhowever, that would not help us as all ours goes to Bury St. Edmunds!