sugar price

[BeeGiner]

For British Sugar fans British Sugar: Too Much of a Bad Thing - Feedback

Oh and didn't many of those good old British Farmers lobby hard for the use of neonicotinoids Government breaks promise to maintain ban on bee-harming pesticide

 

[maddydog]

Looks like sugar might be a luxury item, for bees, before long?

Now they're thinking about a £3 a kilo tax on the wholesale price. Hopefully we can get some dyed stuff if it comes to that

 

[madasafish]

Now they're thinking about a £3 a kilo tax on the wholesale price. Hopefully we can get some dyed stuff if it comes to that

Typical ill considered response by HMG. Sound bite without thinking it all through Or rather sound bite without thinking.

 

[user 20297]

Am I missing something here? These supermarket prices sound like they are pretty much exactly the same as I remember them being last year. What's the drama?

Yes; I asked the main shopper in our house to start stocking up when possible. She came home with three bags @2Kg "Silver Spoon" sugar from Morrisons at £1.25 a bag...not too much of a stretch for ahobby beekeeper.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Now they're thinking about a £3 a kilo tax on the wholesale price. Hopefully we can get some dyed stuff if it comes to that

No the tax is on sugar and salt added to food not the raw material

 

[Wilco]

For British Sugar fans British Sugar: Too Much of a Bad Thing - Feedback

Oh and didn't many of those good old British Farmers lobby hard for the use of neonicotinoids Government breaks promise to maintain ban on bee-harming pesticide

That article is outdated, they weren't used this year, the decision was reversed in March:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ontaining-a-neonicotinoid-to-treat-sugar-beet

The farmers lobbied for the use of a small amount of a specific neonic on the seed to prevent losses from a specific condition, beet yellows. This was forecast to cause a loss of nearly 9% of the predicted 2021 yield. Treating seeds means that you can have a significant effect with a very small amount of targeted pesticide rather than the volumes which would be needed if treating later in the growth cycle- that would also likely be sprayed on foliage, thus have significantly greater knock-on impact on other species etc.. It's sadly not as simple as an outright ban unless the public is prepared to get real about food prices and decreasing the population which, TBH, they need to anyway...

 

[PeaBee]

For British Sugar fans British Sugar: Too Much of a Bad Thing - Feedback

Oh and didn't many of those good old British Farmers lobby hard for the use of neonicotinoids Government breaks promise to maintain ban on bee-harming pesticide

Whether they lobbied or not they can't use it unlike pretty much all the non EU countries we import sugar (and osr) from who can apply it in a far less regulated way than UK farmers ever could. Unfortunately when it comes to commodity crops the playing field is far from level and environmental regulations vary massively.
Didn't many of the good old british bee keepers who lobbied hard for neonic ban then go and buy imported sugar probably grown with neonic!

 

[bobba]

My understanding is that sugar from non EU parts of the world i.e. cane sugar is much cheaper to produce than EU beet sugar but the EU heavily subsidise sugar beet to help EU farmers and disadvantage those from the third world.
Global sugar price is strongly affected by its use to produce alcohol which is mixed with petrol, even in the fuel we use in the UK (how this can possibly be “green” puzzles me)

Don't forget the tariffs too:

https://www.ragus.co.uk/tariffs-on-sugars-explained/

 

[Dodge]

I think beekeepers are hard up, my wife seems to think that most beeks spend more money in fuel to get cheaper sugar that it out ways the cost saving.

 

[Karol]

Apparently the lunar wobble will cause severe flooding of coastal areas by 2030 and low lying areas in Norfolk/Suffolk are likely to be at risk. Hedge your bets gentlefolk!

 

[viridens]

I have just returned from Glastonbury High Street. Plenty of Lunar wobble there already.

 

[maddydog]

Jenkins' said: No the tax is on sugar and salt added to food not the raw material

Indeed. But on a Booker's 25kg bag how are they going to differentiate between bee feed and sticky buns as the final destination?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Jenkins' said: No the tax is on sugar and salt added to food not the raw material

Indeed. But on a Booker's 25kg bag how are they going to differentiate between bee feed and sticky buns as the final destination?

Well won't the tax be on the sticky bun and not the bag of sugar?

 

[maddydog]

Well won't the tax be on the sticky bun and not the bag of sugar?

Doesn't appear to be from what they are suggesting. The proposed tax is on the wholesale sugar that is going to make the processed food. I can see a scenario where invert syrup packaged as bee food is tax free but a 25kg bag of sugar isn't?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Jenkins' said: No the tax is on sugar and salt added to food not the raw material

Indeed. But on a Booker's 25kg bag how are they going to differentiate between bee feed and sticky buns as the final destination?

It would be pretty simplistic to believe they are going to tax Granny greenteeth making a few scones for the church Bazaar.
It's only on commercially produced food so it's pretty simple really. An audit of Mr Kipling's books will show how many tons of sugar he has bought. Job done.
If you look at a packet of cakes/ready meal in Trescos it list all the ingredients and the quantities, they already do it for fizzy drinks and that didn't hit the beekeeper did it?
It doesn't take a genius to work it out.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well won't the tax be on the sticky bun and not the bag of sugar?

Indeed it's just the usual assumptive hand wringing and jumping to wild conclusions. It's sometimes better to listen what people involved are saying rather than depending on facebook for facts.

 

[Boston Bees]

Mostly though, a tax on sugar in processed food is never, ever going to happen.

Anyone remember the fuss over the "pasty tax", which affected a much smaller subset of food, but died as soon as it was given this moniker?

Taxing sugar in soft drinks is one thing - no-one can seriously claim that they need to drink full-fat coke in order to survive.

In contrast, taxing food that is disproportionately eaten by lower income people, as a low-cost source of their required calorie intake, is political suicide and thus will never happen.

 

[BeeGiner]

Apparently the lunar wobble will cause severe flooding of coastal areas by 2030 and low lying areas in Norfolk/Suffolk are likely to be at risk. Hedge your bets gentlefolk!

Is this more climate change hysteria?

 

[Karol]

Is this more climate change hysteria?

Apparently the lunar wobble is responsible for causing tidal surges that threaten flooding of low lying areas so could threaten sugar beat production. Not climate change per se - just pure physics but yes, it's already being highjacked by the climate doom sayers.

 

[Karol]

Don't know if it will have an impact on sugar supplies but Occado's main Erith distribution centre has had a major fire. Perhaps there might be some smoke damaged sugar at discounted rates?