Washington, 1 Oct - There will be no surplus sugar available for sale to U.S. ethanol distillers for making the alternative motor fuel in the coming year, said the Agriculture Department on Tuesday.
The sugar-for-ethanol program was created in the 2008 farm law. USDA said fiscal 2009 ending stocks will be so small there probably will be no forfeitures of sugar loans, the step needed to inaugurate the so-called feedstock flexibility program.
Lawmakers said USDA would save money by selling sugar to ethanol makers rather than absorb the forfeitures.
By law, USDA must run the sugar program at no net cost to taxpayers as much as it can. The program guarantees a minimum price for domestic sugar and uses a tariff-rate quota to regulate imports. Free trade in sugar with Mexico began on Jan. 1.
USDA also said it assigned 140,059 short tons raw value to fiscal 2008 imports that initially was alloted to domestic sugar cane. USDA said the cane sector would not be able to use the allotment and it held no inventory to fill the shortfall. USDA did not alter the beet sugar allotments.
For fiscal 2009, which opens on Wednesday, USDA announced the distribution of the beet sugar allotment of 4,850,738 STRV among processors and the distribution among cane processors for the cane sugar allotment of 4,074,262 STRV.
A new cane processor, Andino Energy Enterprises LLC, of Louisiana, was given an allocation of 25,266 STRV for fiscal 2009.