Sugar producers finally agree on disposal of surplus

On Tuesday, after 14 months of tough negotiations, Polish and foreign sugar producers finally reached an agreement which will enable the removal from the Polish market of a 300,000 tonne surplus of sugar worth zł. 300 million. Now the project has to be approved by the Agriculture Minister and by representatives of four foreign sugar companies as well as Polski Cukier. Similar agreements were prepared before but failed to meet the requirements of all the interested parties. "Before, all the foreign companies tried to force their individual terms, making it impossible to satisfy all parties. I hope that this time the project will succeed as all are equally interested in disposing of the surplus," said Polski Cukier President Władysław Łukasik. It is speculated that foreign investors have become interested in exporting, which is less profitable, as they understand that after EU accession cheap sugar would reach their markets thus competing with their more expensive products. The investors would deny this speculation. (Puls Biznesu, p. 9) K.Ż.