Sugar price cuts - Irish industry set to end on sour note

THE writing is finally on the wall for Ireland’s sugar industry.

That is now crystal clear following yesterday’s crucial meeting in Brussels where EU agriculture ministers accepted proposals on deep cuts in the price guaranteed for sugar beet growers.

The bleak reality is that the cuts will force the country’s 3,700 beet farmers out of production and possibly send many tillage farmers to the wall.

For consumers, the deal represents good news as it involves a 36% cut in the price of sugar following a World Trade Organisation ruling that EU supports for the industry were illegal.

As a sweetener for growers and producers, the compensation package for Ireland will be worth €310m, but will be a bitter pill for the IFA to swallow as growers are getting nothing like the 100% compensation deal they wanted. And with the cake divided between growers and sugar producer Greencore, the deal is a devastating blow for thousands of farmers.

Under the deal, farmers stand to get a package of €120m over seven years in the form of a direct farm premium and an additional €44m in special assistance.

With only Mallow sugar factory - where 300 jobs are also in jeopardy - still operating in the wake of swingeing cutbacks, the IFA can be forgiven for being sceptical about Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan’s assertion that two more years of sugar beet growing were still possible under this deal.

After generations of growing beet, jaundiced farmers see the compensation package as totally inadequate and claim it will wipe out the industry overnight.

But even if a two-year lifeline were on the cards, the reality is that sugar production in Ireland is finally drawing to a close.