Press Release: Commissioner Fischer Boel calls for substantial preventive withdrawal from the sugar market to avert probable surplus

The European Commission has taken the first steps in a process towards a substantial withdrawal of quota sugar from the market, in order to avoid a significant surplus at the end of the season. Withdrawal means a temporary reduction in the amount of sugar producers can produce under their quota. As such, a proportion of the sugar produced in the 2007/2008 marketing year will either have to be counted against the quota for 2008/2009 or be sold as out of quota sugar for industrial use, i.e. for bioethanol, chemical industry etc. The Commission believes that a provisional figure for withdrawal of at least 2 million tonnes, i.e. corresponding to 12% of the quota, will be necessary. It will make a proposal to the Management Committee in February 2007 for a Commission Regulation fixing such a provisional figure. A definitive figure will be set later in the year towards October, once the Commission has a clearer picture of the harvest and production of sugar.