Latvia has decided to revive the sugar industry

After a 20-year break, Latvia has decided to revive sugar beet cultivation and sugar production.

This is reported by Dienas Bizness.

Last year, 2.5 thousand hectares were sown, which is only 20% of the level of 2006, when the industry was still functioning.

The maximum area under beet was in 1992 – 25 thousand hectares, which is 10 times more than the current level. Latvia’s sugar industry was liquidated in 2007 due to the country’s accession to the European Union and the EU’s reforms aimed at reducing the number of sugar producers following a WTO dispute in which Brazil, Australia and Thailand were the plaintiffs.

Instead of stimulating production, the EU started paying subsidies for not growing beets. The factories in Liepaja, Jelgava and Jekabpils were closed, and 480 farms lost their orders. In 2017, the EU abolished sugar production quotas, but by then the industry in Latvia was completely destroyed.

Farmers began to receive orders from Lithuanian factories in Kėdainiai and Marijampolė, owned by the Danish company Nordic Sugar, part of the German Nordzucker group. Until now, Latvia had been importing all its sugar.

Tags: sugar, Latvia