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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to mitigate the effect of recent changes in EU policy on the sugar industry.

The sugar regime is one of the most heavily regulated and distorting elements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The agreement, as part of the 2013 reforms, to end sugar beet quotas in 2017 is an important step towards removing these distortions.

During negotiations of the reforms the UK Government argued for a fair and balanced outcome for all parts of the sugar industry. Disappointingly, there was insufficient support from other Member States to secure the necessary changes on imports to allow the cane sector to compete on a level playing field with the beet sector. However, we remain committed to working with the European Commission to address this issue through forthcoming EU trade agreements.