Thu, Mar 7th 2024
Switzerland eases its Swissness rule for sugar, allowing a 40% domestic content due to adverse weather and pest impacts on sugar beet crops.
To qualify for the Swiss designation of origin on sugar, only 40 percent of the sugar must come from Switzerland. The reason for this was the poor year for sugar beet, as reported by the Agricultural Information Service (LID) on Thursday.
In principle, 80 percent of the raw materials of a product with the Swiss designation of origin must also come from Switzerland, as stipulated by the so-called Swissness rule. However, this changes if there are insufficient raw materials available. If the degree of self-sufficiency in a product is less than 50%, the Swiss content in a product only has to be half as high.
According to the LID, this is now the case for sugar. Both the weather and a pest infestation led to a low sugar beet harvest in 2023. “Last year was a year to forget. It couldn’t have been worse,” Martin Flury, President of the Swiss Association of Sugar Beet Growers, was quoted as saying by LID.
The beets were affected by the rain in the fall. Last year, the plant disease “Syndrome des basses richesses” (SBR) spread. SBR causes a low sugar content. According to the LID, it was detected for the first time in four samples in eastern Switzerland in 2023. Previously, it had only been found in western Switzerland.
In addition, the so-called beet weevil, a pest of North African origin, was discovered for the first time. The beet weevil loves heat and drought, explained Flury. “We hope that it doesn’t spread any further.”
The aim now is to increase the level of self-sufficiency again, Andreas Blank, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Schweizer Zucker AG, told LID. This is because reducing the necessary proportion of Swiss sugar also entails the risk that the industry will increasingly rely on imported sugar.
©Keystone/SDA
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