Today, October 1, the European Union’s sugar regime, which has for decades sustained the production of cane and raw sugar in the Caribbean, comes to an end.
This is scarcely news. As a long-planned domestic measure, the EU decided in 2013 to abolish national sugar production quotas in Europe in 2017. The measure will cause the overall volume of EU sugar imports to fall as Europe becomes self-sufficient, and reduce the price paid for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) cane sugar.
Over time, the measure is expected to see the EU sugar price decline towards the already low world market price, forcing the EU sugar sector to become more competitive, removing any incentive for high-cost cane producers such as those in the Caribbean to export raw sugar post-Brexit to the EU27.
