Representatives of sugar mills and sugar beet farmers on Monday signed a petition appealing to the government and relevant authorities to secure measures and solutions regarding Slovakia’s sugar market. The measures concern the protection and regulation of the domestic market.

Signatories to the petition claim that due to the absence of effective measures at present, they are unable to fulfill sale quotas at 190,000 tons, while total quota recognized by the European Union for Slovakia on entering the European Union is 17,500 tons higher. Representatives of the Slovak Association of Sugar Producers (SCS) and the Associations of Sugar Beet Growers of Slovakia (ZPCRS) demand stricter controls on sugar imports mainly during the upcoming 15 months until the date of Slovakia’s expected accession to the European Union.

According to Ivan Kardos, chairman of SCS board, another significant problem adversely influencing the sugar market in Slovakia is the activity of the State Material Reserves Administration of Slovakia, which according to Mr. Kardos many times releases sugar reserves onto the market, harming domestic sugar makers. The sugar makers have initiated checks by the State Material Reserves Administration several times, however, these have so far been unsuccessful.

During the sugar beet campaign in the sugar-beet season 2002/2003 Slovak sugar mills processed 1.429 million tons of sugar beet. The average sugar beet yield per hectare on a total area sown of 30,280 hectares, was 47.19 tons. The sugar mills produced 183,690 tons of sugar.