It means that buyers are paying 10 to 15 percent more for cane sugar. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. "The current price for beet sugar is about 3 to 5 cents below the price for cane sugar on the spot market," says Michael McConnell, an economist with the U.S. Slowly, but consistently, a gap has opened up between the price of sugar from cane and sugar from beets. The result has been a remarkable change in the American sugar market. "They were talking like a third or up to half of them were converting their systems to strictly non-GMO," Beyer says. Beyer went to the company's annual meeting earlier this year and was shocked to hear just how many of American Crystal's customers - those pastry and chocolate companies - were moving away from sugar beets. It's been a jolt for American Crystal, which is mainly in the sugar beet business.Īmerican Crystal is a cooperative, owned by sugar beet farmers like Andrew Beyer, from Kent, Minn. Hershey's is one of the top sugar users in the country, and other companies have made similar moves. Now we're looking to do that across the rest of our portfolio, to the extent that we can." There isn't any genetically modified sugar cane.ĭeborah Arcoleo, director of product transparency at the Hershey Co., told me that in 2015, "we started reformulating Hershey's Kisses, Hershey's milk chocolate, and Hershey's milk chocolate with almonds, to move from beet sugar to cane sugar, and that's complete. are genetically modified, those food products are now using sugar derived from sugar cane grown in Florida, Louisiana or outside the U.S. And because practically all sugar beets in the U.S. Many food companies have decided to label their products as non-GMO. Just in the past two years, though, that's changed. "We have not come across any specific place where we're under any constraints where we can't sell our sugar." "Most of our buyers, the people who buy sugar for industrial uses - as an ingredient in cereals and candies and baked goods and things like that - they've not expressed big concerns about it," Berg said. I interviewed David Berg, president of the American Crystal Sugar Co., about this change in 2008. The GMO beets, which can tolerate the weedkiller glyphosate, otherwise known as Roundup, made it easier for them to get rid of weeds. It's all because about eight years ago, nearly all the farmers who grow sugar beets in the United States decided to start growing genetically modified versions of their crop. Now, for the first time, sugar traders are treating these as two different commodities, with two different prices. comes from sugar beets, and the other half comes from sugar cane. But not anymore.Ībout half of all sugar in the U.S. Sugar, you might think, is just sugar, no matter where it comes from.
Tetra Images | Getty Images In the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota, sugar beets await processing in frozen piles during the winter.
There is no genetically modified sugar cane. are genetically modified, those food products are now using sugar derived from sugar cane.
Because practically all sugar beets in the U.S. Listen In the past two years, many food companies - including candy-makers - have decided to label their products as non-GMO.
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