Cork firms back sugar revival plans

Cork agri-business companies are among the first to provide letters of support in advance of a series of meetings to promote Beet Ireland’s drive to revive the Irish sugar industry.

Letters of support have already been sent to Beet Ireland by Cork Farm Machinery, Grassland Fertilizers, Atkins, Gouldings, and dairy co-ops including Dairygold, Barryroe and Bandon, among others.

“All of these companies can see that this revival will be of benefit to them,” said Beet Ireland member Jim O’Regan. “The sugar industry can sustain thousands of jobs, and will generate significant local economic activity at a time that the country really needs it.”

These companies’ logos will feature on screens at Beet Ireland’s public meeting at 8pm tonight in The Hub, Cillin Hill, Kilkenny; and again at the public meeting in Vienna Woods Hotel, Glanmire, Cork, at 8pm next Monday, Mar 4.

At the events, Beet Ireland chairman Michael Hoey is to explain how a new Munster sugar plant can replace the €200m in sugar imported annually into Ireland, and will inform farmers of the planned Munster location for its proposed new plant, believed to be on a site of more than 250 acres.

Beet Ireland hopes its plant will be operational by 2016.

Investment brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald will explain how it is to raise the €350m required to fund the new venture.

The firm’s Irish CEO, Ronan Reid, will explain why major banks are already backing the sugar revival plan, and give details on how the financial plan will work.

Beet Ireland’s directors will also update farmers on CAP negotiations, Ireland’s sugar quota options and progress to date in the State’s efforts to gain EU support for this Irish initiative.

The EU is about 75% self-sufficient in sugar. At its height, Ireland’s sugar industry only produced about 1% of the EU’s total output.

There is a growing optimism that the EU’s strongest sugar producers may support Irish calls for a derogation on sugar quota restrictions from 2016 onwards.

Quotas were due to end in 2015 — but the EU is likely to accede to a call from larger producers in the UK, Germany, France, Holland and Denmark that sugar quotas be extended to 2020.

Ireland lost its sugar quota in 2005/06 when the EU compensated farmers in Ireland, Latvia and Slovenia for withdrawing from the sector.

Irish sugar industry groups have sought a reversal of this decision over the past seven years.

With sugar prices having doubled from €450 to €900 per tonne in the interim, agri-businesses and the banking institutions believe sugar can produce a healthy profit for all involved.