IFA warns of risk to sugar factory

ONE of the country’s two sugar factories, located at Mallow and Carlow, could face closure if import tariffs and export subsidies are drastically cut at the WTO talks, the Government was warned yesterday.

Some 3,700 farmers supply the Irish Sugar plants with around 1.3 million tonnes of beet grown on about 80,000 acres each year. The company has 450 permanent staff with a further 200 temporary employees during the annual beet processing campaign.

The EU is under strong pressure to allow third countries have increased access to its markets for all products including sugar.