USDA Announces 2014-Crop Sugar Loan Rates and FY 2015 Sugar Program Provisions

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Commodity Credit Corporation today announced loan rates for 2014-crop sugar as required by the 2014 Farm Bill. The 2014-crop national average loan rate is 18.75 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 24.09 cents per pound for refined beet sugar, the same as last year. These national loan rates are adjusted regionally to reflect marketing cost differentials.

The Commodity Credit Corporation also announced sugar program provisions of the fiscal year (FY) 2015 domestic sugar program.

USDA’s Sugar Loan Program provides price support loans to processors of sugar beets and domestically grown sugarcane. Price support loans are nonrecourse, meaning producers have the option of delivering the pledged sugar collateral to the Commodity Credit Corporation as full payment for the loan at maturity. USDA’s Farm Service Agency is administering sugar nonrecourse loans on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation for the 2014 crop. Sugar and in-process sugar loans are available beginning Oct. 1, 2014, and mature at the earlier of (1) the end of the nine month period beginning the first day of the first month after the month in which the loan is made, or (2) the end of the fiscal year in which the loan is made.

Loan Rates for Refined Beet Sugar

The refined beet sugar processing regions and applicable 2014-crop (FY 2015) loan rates in cents per pound of refined beet sugar are:

• Michigan and Ohio – 25.32
• Minnesota and the eastern half of North Dakota – 23.72
• Northeastern quarter of Colorado, Nebraska and the southeastern quarter of Wyoming – 24.36
• Montana, northwestern quarter of Wyoming and the western half of North Dakota – 23.81
• Idaho, Oregon and Washington – 23.98
• California – 25.03

Loan Rates for Raw Cane Sugar

The 2014-crop (FY 2015) raw cane sugar loan rates in cents per pound of cane sugar, raw value are:

• Florida – 18.11
• Hawaii – 17.45 (18.75 cents per pound if stored on the mainland)
• Louisiana – 19.58
• Texas – 18.49

Sugar beet and sugarcane processors receiving Commodity Credit Corporation loans in FY 2015 must make minimum grower payments for all sugar beets and sugarcane received from growers. Processors failing to meet the required minimum grower payment will be ineligible for loans. Sugar beet grower minimum payments are the amount specified in the grower/processor contract.

Sugarcane processors must, at minimum, pay growers for their share of production from molasses and sugar per ton of cane as specified here:

States minimum payments are:

• Florida – $28.51 per net ton
• Hawaii – $29.62 per net ton
• Louisiana – $28.71 per gross ton
• Texas – $25.73 per gross ton

Commodity Credit Corporation has not modified the FY 2015 raw sugar loan schedule of premiums and discounts because the raw cane sugar loan rate has not changed. These schedules can be found in the Farm Service Agency handbook 10-SU, available at http://go.usa.gov/dTZ9, or at local Farm Service Agency state and county offices.

Initial FY 2015 Sugar Marketing Allocations

The Commodity Credit Corporation is announcing the initial FY 2015 overall sugar marketing allotment, which is established at 9,987,500 short tons, raw value. The overall sugar marketing allotment is equal to 85 percent of the estimated human consumption for the crop year of 11,750,000 short tons, raw value as forecast in the September 2014 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report. Statute requires that a fixed portion of the overall sugar marketing allotment be assigned to the beet sector and the cane sector. The Commodity Credit Corporation distributed the FY 2015 beet sugar allotment of 5,428,206 short tons, raw value (54.35 percent of the overall sugar marketing allotment) among the sugar beet processors and the cane sugar allotment of 4,559,294 short tons, raw value (45.65 percent of the overall sugar marketing allotment) among the sugarcane states and processors.

The Commodity Credit Corporation determined that:

• In 2004, Puerto Rican processors permanently terminated operations because no sugar had been processed for two complete years. The Puerto Rico allocation of 6,356 short tons, raw value is reassigned to Hawaii and then further reassigned to the mainland sugarcane-producing states, because Hawaii is not expected to use all of its cane sugar allotment.
• A Hawaiian cane processor, Gay and Robinson, Inc., permanently terminated operations because it had not processed sugarcane for two consecutive crop years. The Gay and Robinson, Inc. allocation of 73,145 short tons, raw value is reassigned to Hawaii and then further reassigned to the mainland sugarcane-producing states, because Hawaii is not expected to use all of its cane sugar allotment.
• Farm level proportionate shares were not necessary in Louisiana in FY 2015, the only state eligible for proportionate shares, because the cane sugar sector was not expected to fill its allotment.

USDA will closely monitor stocks, consumption, imports and all sugar market and program variables on an ongoing basis. USDA will continue to administer the sugar program as transparently as possible using the latest available data, and make adjustments as necessary to ensure adequate supplies of both raw and refined sugar in the domestic market.

The initial FY 2015 sugar marketing state allotments and processor allocations are as follows:

For more information, contact your local USDA Service Center or Barbara Fecso at (202) 720-4146, barbara.fecso@usda.gov.