New Study: American Sugar Industry Remains Big Jobs, Revenue Generator

Meeting in Stowe, Vt. -- a town that calls itself the "Maple Sugar Capital of the World" -- Americas sugar industry learned Wednesday that it is still generating nearly 130,000 direct and indirect jobs and almost $20 billion in annual revenue. That's according to a study released Wednesday at the 28th International Sweetener Symposium.

Because the industry has been hit hard by job loss during the last decade and a half, the substantial figures in a tight world economy came as something of a surprise.

Conducted by LMC International, an England-based global commodity research firm, the study was an update of an earlier report that showed a vibrant sugar industry in 1993/94, which boasted nearly 248,000 jobs and $10 billion in annual economic impact.Low prices in past years appear to be the culprit for the downfall in jobs, but a recent price recovery accounts for the gain in revenues.

Sugar prices were so low between 1994 and 2008 that companies were forced to close 39 beet or cane mills across the country, said Jack Roney, an economist with the American Sugar Alliance, in a written press release.

The good news, says Roney, is that the job loss problem appears to have corrected itself for now, thanks in part to the no-cost sugar policy enacted by Congress in 2008. Under that policy, fewer sugar plants have closed than during any period in the last 20 years.

"In rural areas where beets and cane are grown and processed, these jobs are the life blood of many communities," Roney said. "In urban areas where cane refineries are located, these good-paying jobs are crucial as well, especially in the tough economic situation the United States now finds itself ."

Despite past plant closures, producers improved efficiency enabled them to sustain sugar production levels. According to LMC data, U.S. production of sugar per worker grew from 119 tons in 1993/94 to 243 tons in 2009/10, a 103 percent increase.

LMC examined the jobs associated directly with the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of sugarbeets and sugarcane, the processing of the beets and cane, and the refining of raw cane sugar. It then used U.S. Department of Commerce multipliers to estimate the number of indirect jobs the American sugar industry generates. Sugarbeets are grown in 11 states and sugarcane in four; there are cane refineries in six states.
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