WASHINGTON, September 30, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) today announced the marketing assistance loan rates for sugar for crop year 2021 (fiscal year 2022). CCC also announced sugar beet and sugarcane allotments and processor marketing allocations for the fiscal year 2022 domestic sugar program. In addition, CCC announced that it does not expect to purchase and sell sugar under the Feedstock Flexibility Program for crop year 2021 (fiscal year 2022), which runs from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022.

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USDA Announces Fiscal Year 2022 Sugar Loan Rates, Allotment and Marketing Allocations, and No Actions Under the Feedstock Flexibility Program for Fiscal Year 2022

WASHINGTON, September 30, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) today announced the marketing assistance loan rates for sugar for crop year 2021 (fiscal year 2022). CCC also announced sugar beet and sugarcane allotments and processor marketing allocations for the fiscal year 2022 domestic sugar program. In addition, CCC announced that it does not expect to purchase and sell sugar under the Feedstock Flexibility Program for crop year 2021 (fiscal year 2022), which runs from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022.  

Marketing Assistance Loan Rates
USDA offers marketing assistance loans to processors of sugar beets and domestically grown sugarcane to provide interim financing to producers so that commodities can be stored after harvest when market prices are typically low and then sold later when price conditions are more favorable. The 2018 Farm Bill increased the national average loan rate to 19.75 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 25.40 cents per pound for refined beet sugar. These rates are adjusted regionally to reflect marketing cost differentials. 

The loans are available beginning October 1, 2021 and mature at the end of the nine-month period beginning the first day of the first month after the month in which the loan is made, or the end of the fiscal year in which the loan is made, whichever is earlier. Producers have the option to deliver the pledged sugar collateral to CCC as full payment for the loan at maturity.

Loan Rates for Refined Beet Sugar
The refined beet sugar processing regions and applicable 2021-crop (fiscal year 2022) loan rates in cents per pound of refined beet sugar are:

  • Michigan and Ohio – 26.26
  • Minnesota and the eastern half of North Dakota – 25.16
  • Northeastern quarter of Colorado, Nebraska and the southeastern quarter of Wyoming – 26.30
  • Montana, northwestern quarter of Wyoming and the western half of North Dakota – 25.33
  • Idaho, Oregon and Washington – 25.08
  • California – 26.46

Loan Rates for Raw Cane Sugar
The 2021-crop (fiscal year 2022) raw cane sugar loan rates in cents per pound of cane sugar, raw value are:

  • Florida – 19.01
  • Louisiana – 20.76
  • Texas – 19.73

Note: Hawaii stopped producing sugar in January 2017 and hence, requires no loan rate.

Sugar beet and sugarcane processors who receive CCC loans in fiscal year 2022 are required to make minimum grower payments for all sugar beets and sugarcane received from growers. Processors failing to meet the required minimum grower payment will be ineligible for loans. 
Sugar beet grower minimum payments are the amount specified in the grower/processor contract.

Sugarcane processors must, at minimum, pay growers for their share of production from molasses and sugar per ton of cane as specified here. State minimum payments are:

  • Florida – $27.76 per net ton
  • Louisiana – $31.21 per gross ton
  • Texas – $27.26 per gross ton

CCC has not modified the fiscal year 2022 raw sugar loan schedule of premiums and discounts because the raw cane sugar loan rate has not changed. 

Initial Fiscal Year 2022 Sugar Allotment and Marketing Allocations
CCC also announced the initial fiscal year 2022 overall sugar marketing allotment, which is established at 10,370,000 short tons, raw value. The overall sugar marketing allotment is set at 85 percent of the estimated quantity of sugar for domestic human consumption for the crop year of 12,200,000 short tons, raw value as forecast in the September 2021 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report. Statute requires that a fixed portion of the overall sugar marketing allotment be assigned to the beet sector and the cane sector. CCC distributed the fiscal year 2022 beet sugar allotment of 5,636,095 short tons, raw value (54.35 percent of the overall sugar marketing allotment) among the sugar beet processors and the cane sugar allotment of 4,733,905 short tons, raw value (45.65 percent of the overall sugar marketing allotment) among the sugarcane States and processors.

The Farm Bill requires that 325,000 short tons, raw value of the cane sector allotment be assigned to “Offshore” States, meaning Puerto Rico and Hawaii. CCC has determined that Puerto Rico and Hawaii have permanently exited sugarcane production. As a result, CCC has allocated the 325,000 short tons, raw value of cane sector allotment previously assigned to “Offshore” States to the Mainland States of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

CCC determined that farm-level proportionate shares are not necessary in Louisiana in fiscal year 2022, the only State eligible for proportionate shares, because the cane sugar sector is not expected to fill its allotment.

USDA will closely monitor stocks, consumption, imports and all sugar market and program variables on an ongoing basis. USDA will continue to administer the sugar program as transparently as possible using the latest available data and adjust as necessary to ensure adequate supplies of both raw and refined sugar in the domestic market.

The initial fiscal year 2022 sugar marketing State allotments and processor allocations are listed in the table below: 

FY 2022 OVERALL BEET/CANE ALLOTMENTS AND ALLOCATIONS (short tons, raw value)
DistributionInitial FY22 Allocations
Beet Sugar5,636,095
Cane Sugar 4,733,905
    TOTAL OAQ10,370,000
  
BEET PROCESSORS' MARKETING ALLOCATIONS: 
Amalgamated Sugar Co.1,206,731
American Crystal Sugar Co.2,072,759
Michigan Sugar Co.582,071
Minn-Dak Farmers Co-op.391,421
So. Minn Beet Sugar Co-op.760,693
Western Sugar Co.575,228
Wyoming Sugar Company, LLC 47,192
   TOTAL BEET SUGAR5,636,095
  
STATE CANE SUGAR ALLOTMENTS: 
Florida2,544,366
Louisiana1,968,353
Texas221,186
    TOTAL CANE SUGAR4,733,905
  
CANE PROCESSORS' MARKETING ALLOCATIONS: 
Florida
     Florida Crystals1,047,582
     Growers Co-op. of FL457,694
     U.S. Sugar Corp.1,039,090
TOTAL2,544,366
  
Louisiana 
     Louisiana Sugar Cane Products, Inc.1,366,493
     M.A. Patout & Sons601,860
TOTAL1,968,353
  
Texas 
     Rio Grande Valley221,186

No Actions Under Feedstock Flexibility Program
The CCC is required by law to quarterly announce estimates of sugar to be purchased and sold under the Feedstock Flexibility Program based on crop and consumption forecasts.

Federal law allows sugar processors to obtain loans from USDA with maturities of up to nine months when the sugarcane or sugar beet harvest begins. On loan maturity, the sugar processor may repay the loan in full or forfeit the collateral (sugar) to USDA to satisfy the loan.

The Feedstock Flexibility Program, initially authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, was reauthorized by Congress in the 2018 Farm Bill as an option to avoid sugar forfeitures. Under the Feedstock Flexibility Program, if USDA is faced with the likelihood of loan forfeitures, it is required to purchase surplus sugar and sell it to bioenergy producers to reduce the surplus in the food use market and support sugar prices. USDA’s September 10, 2021, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report (www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde) projects that crop year 2021 (fiscal year 2022) U.S. ending sugar stocks are unlikely to lead to forfeitures. Therefore, currently, USDA does not expect to purchase and sell sugar under the Feedstock Flexibility Program for crop year 2021.

The next quarterly estimate regarding the Feedstock Flexibility Program will occur on or before January 1, 2022.

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