Experts Evaluate Alarming State of U.S. Sugar Economy

VAIL, CO - American sugarbeet and sugarcane farmers are facing increasing pressures, threatening the viability of a critical domestic industry. Farm economists and other sugar industry stakeholders discussed these challenges and the importance of maintaining a strong American sugar industry during panels at the International Sweetener Symposium today.

Carlann Unger, who manages the U.S. sugar program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), pointed to high input costs, weather and pest and disease disasters, and other challenges that have put stress on the U.S. sugar industry. Unger noted that the U.S. started 2026 with the highest stocks of sugar on record, which she attributed to the outdated over-quota sugar tariff.

"The main challenge… it's really the high-tier [sugar]. The high-tier [tariff] was set in 2000. It is no longer prohibitive," Unger said. "And that's not something that we can control through the sugar program. So, the tools in our toolbox aren't really going to work. The start of fiscal year 2026, when we were seeing all this high tier continue to come in, but we knew we had high stocks - there's nothing that we could do within the program to stop that high tier."

Sugar producers are also facing a flood of over-quota foreign sugar imports that have put downward pressure on prices, causing more than $3 billion in losses to American producers over the past  2  growing seasons, according to a study from the Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University (NDSU). 

Dr. Shawn Arita, one of the leading authors on that paper, said that his team "put together a rigorous and objective economic study looking at the effects of this influx of tier-2 imports on our U.S. sugar producers. We did find that it does significantly depress U.S. sugar prices."

Randy Green, speaking on behalf of the Sweetener Users Association (SUA), emphasized that sugar users have a vested interest in supporting a strong domestic industry. Green noted that there have been no recent media reports of U.S. confectionary manufacturers moving overseas due to U.S. sugar prices.

"That doesn't seem to be a recent trend," Green said.

Sugar is an important food ingredient, adding flavor, acting as a preservative, balancing acidity, and more. A strong U.S. sugar industry ensures that confectioners and food manufacturers always have an affordable and reliable supply of American-made sugar.