Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what effect he expects the end of EU quotas on sugar beet production to have on domestic sugar prices.

We expect the price of sugar within the European Union (EU) to follow trends in world prices more closely following the removal of quotas on beet sugar production. While the United Kingdom remains within the EU domestic prices will be similarly affected. The latest EU sugar prices show a recent drop reflecting the fall in international prices and expectations of higher EU exports.