Exclusive: NCA and Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy raise Farm Bill hopes ahead of US elections
US Capitol building at sunset, Washington DC. The NCA and Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy expresses hopes that the Senate and president will pass sugar reform as part of the Farm Bill. Pic: Adobestock
With the pivotal US presidential elections just around the corner, the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy has expressed optimism that a bipartisan deal can be struck for the crucial national Farm Bill, in a bid to address an urgent deficit in industry sugar supplies, writes Neill Barston.
The major legislation – which is passed every five years, was last signed into law in 2018, impacting on the range of foods that can be grown across the country, covering crop production, as well as conservation as well as nutritional programmes.
For its part, as recently reported by Confectionery Production, the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy welcomed the latest iteration of the Farm Bill – which is debated by the US Congress and its Senate. This was originally put forward in US law back in the 1930s, and has traditionally proved a complex legislation to agree, given historic tensions between Democrat and Republican parties.
The overall legislation remains critical to the confectionery sector in relation to levels of sugar production – which have been restricted domestically for decades, that has led to considerable concern within the manufacturing industry that has felt the pressure of insufficient volumes attainable locally.
As the National Confectioners Association confirmed, there is presently a notable sugar availability deficit, with demand within the country at around 12.5 million tonnes within the sector, against domestic supplies of 9 million. As another major factor related to the problem, imports to the US are also tightly controlled, attracting notable tariffs that has placed further pressure on manufacturing markets.
Significantly, the Farm Bill requires presidential sign-off, and the 2024 race to the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris and her opponent Donald Trump are at considerable variance of stance on trade policy – with the ex president recently stating he is in favour of sizeable import tariffs on a wide range of produce and goods, with the Democratic candidate pledging a more restrained approach to taxation.
Consequently, US citizens will be heading to the polls on November 5 to settle what has been an increasingly tense contest, with high levels of early voting being registered. This has underlined the major potential impact of the election outcome in terms of social and economic policy direction.
Crucial policy
For its part, the Farm Bill, which is handled by Congress before being signed into law by the US president has been debated in its latest form for an extended period.
The Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy, which consists of a broad body of trade and consumer organisations, as well as environmental groups, has expressed hope that regardless of the result from next week’s election, its initial groundwork has placed it in a strong position to gain a general consensus of opinion across the political divide, whoever emerges successful in the presidential race.
According to the organisation, which has been backed in its goals of securing greater domestic sugar production by the National Confectioners Association, it remains hopeful that a deal can be achieved.
In its view, this could potentially in the ‘lame duck’ session post election, in the period before the new president takes office at the start of January 2025.
Speaking exclusively to Confectionery Production, Grant Colvin, the executive director of the Alliance of Fair Sugar Policy expressed his hopes that the legislation could be approved as a priority, against a backdrop of reports within the US that time was running short to secure a bipartisan deal on the latest Bill.
He said: “We are very hopeful that reforms will happen, and that is in part down to the fact that we have done the work, and conversations with almost everyone in Washington, and the feedback has been very positive.
“We have done it in a way that tries to bring people together including the sugar growers, and we have had these hard conversations on what’s most important on each side, and we have a balanced situation that seems like a good compromise.
“For the growers, they don’t want any changes, so for them, the compromise is that they have to acknowledge that policy is a living breathing thing, and that there’s an opportunity to revisit it, but for the manufacturers to realise that there are not dramatic changes to the programme so that growers would not recognise it – we are contemplating increasing production and making trade easier, so we have the ingredients for a stable deal here,” asserted Denver-based Colvin, who explained that the issue of bringing about reform for sugar production had been especially complicated due to the fact that the legislation has remained static for an extended period of time, and therefore urgently needed to be revisited.
As he explained, this had built up a strong degree of frustration within manufacturing markets, which require a consistent supply of sugar in different forms to deliver continued innovation, that has been impacted negatively by broader pressures on the cost of living that have arisen from food and beverage inflation.
How realistic does the Alliance believe it would be to ensure policies that satisfy all areas of the debate?
“Are we going to supply all these price problems at once? No, but increasingly domestic production strategically to make sure that we are taking advantage of the enterprise of US farmers, and also making sure that our trade policies are smart is at the heart of that, so that when we need sugar, we can come in more efficiently and enable people to gain the types of sugar that allow them to regularly innovate and manufacture.”
NCA concern
As we have previously reported, John Downs, the CEO and president of the National Confectioners Association has raised the issue of sugar policy reform at the State of the Industry Conference.
Speaking at this year’s event, he expressed hope that the present situation of production deficits could be addressed with the passing of a new Farm Bill urgently by the end of the year.
NCA’s president and CEO, John Downs addressing this year’s State of the Industry conference in Miami. Pic: Neill Barston
Carly Schildhaus, director of public affairs for the NCA explained that the organisation is continuing to press for an urgent resolution to the situation.
She said: “American manufacturers continue to operate at a competitive disadvantage as they pay more for sugar than their competitors.
“The industry is encouraged to see leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees take action on this important issue by including sensible, bipartisan updates to the U.S. sugar program in their respective farm bill proposals. Modernising the sugar program can help offer relief to manufacturers and consumers alike – and make food more affordable for all Americans.”
