Senate to consider the formation of giant national sugar holding company

The senate will tomorrow debate the bill on the formation of a national sugar holding company. Although the plan to create Polish Sugar is likely to be passed by the senate, where it is supported by Solidarity Election Action (AWS), its ultimate fate is uncertain, as it will still have to be approved by the president. According to supporters of the proposal, among them head of the parliament's agriculture committee Gabriel Janowski, the holding company should comprise 49 sugar refineries, among them Slaska Spolka Cukrowa. Janowski is quoted as saying, "Polish Sugar must start to operate withing three months, and it must comprise 49 state-owned refineries. Otherwise some of our plants will go bankrupt." The group supporting the creation of the holding company is keen to keep the sugar industry in domestic hands. Poland produces some 1.5 million tons of sugar a year, and one-fifth of that is produced by Slaska Spolka Cukrowa. (Reuters, Gazeta Wyborcza, p.18) M.T.