Four Major Food Producers Warn of Impending Sugar Shortage

Four major food producers warn of an impending sugar shortage if the Obama administration fails to ease import restrictions amid the sky rocketing prices for the product.

Kraft Foods, General Mills, Hershey and Mars addressed a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack with a warning of the coming severe shortage of sugar used in chocolate bars, cake mixes, chewing gum and thousands of other products.

The companies predicted they would have to raise prices and lay off workers if the Agriculture Department doesn’t allow them to import more tariff-free sugar. The import quotas now in effect limit the amount of tariff-free sugar they can import in a year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. sugar manufacturers are insisting there is no shortage of domestic sugar stock and supplies are actually increasing.

So what is the problem, I ask? Let’s use the U.S. sugar and keep the money in the U.S.! I emailed this proposal to all four major food producers who warn of the sugar shortage and hope I get some good replies back!