The plight of the sugarbeet grower has caught the attention of Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden. “If you were to ask me what the three commodities are that I watch most closely in terms of being at the top of the distress list, it would be the white stuff; cotton, rice, and sugarbeets.” Vaden was a guest on an Ag Bull Media podcast hosted by Tommy Grisafi and Jim Wiesemeyer. He said sugarbeet farmers face high production costs and excessive imports. The tariff level for sugar imports has not changed in more than a decade. Due to inflation, Vaden said that the tariff rate may no longer be high enough to discourage imports of cheap foreign sugar. “I would be hopeful that there may be some interest in taking up a desire to see, study, and perhaps raise those base-level tariff amounts so that we can tell every American that we’re prioritizing American farmers, including American sugar farmers. For those goods that do need sugar, we’re putting American sugar first.”
