EU may temporarily limit duty-free sugar imports

The European Commission may suspend duty-free sugar imports to ease pressure on European producers facing falling prices and increased competition, Reuters reports.

“I will propose to temporarily suspend the inward processing regime for sugar to ease pressure on producers,” EU Agriculture and Food Commissioner Christoph Hansen said on Twitter late on Monday.

Hansen did not specify when the suspension could take effect.

The Inward Processing Relief (IPR) regime allows companies to import sugar into the EU duty-free and without quantitative restrictions, provided that the sugar is refined or processed into food products and then re-exported outside the European Union. The announcement has been met with mixed reactions.

The European sugar beet lobby CIBE strongly supported the suspension of the IPR, calling it a timely and necessary step.

“This will send the right signal and provide some relief to a very depressed EU sugar market,” the organisation said.

Producers say imports have contributed to an oversupply that has pushed EU sugar prices to their lowest level in at least three years.

However, sugar fermenters, sugar refiners and industry associations of sugar consumers believe that the price drop is due to overproduction of sugar beet and have urged the European Commission not to suspend the IPR.

“Suspending the inward processing regime would increase production costs for EU producers, make them less competitive on international markets and jeopardise their presence on global markets,” they said in a joint statement.

According to the European Commission, in the 2024/25 marketing year, imports of raw sugar into the EU under the IPR increased by 19% compared to the previous year, to 587 thousand tonnes, of which 95% came from Brazil.

Imports of white sugar under the IPR in the 2024/25 marketing year increased by 5%, to 155 thousand tonnes. The main supplier was also Brazil (43%), followed by Morocco, Egypt and Ukraine, according to the European Commission.

European sugar producers also express concerns about unfair competition and the possible consequences of the trade agreement with the South American bloc MERCOSUR, in particular due to a possible increase in sugar import quotas.

Tags: EU, sugar, imports, restrictions