After the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in January that sugar beet seed may no longer be treated with neonicotinoids, domestic beet growers sounded the alarm. The supply of domestic sugar is in danger. Because it has now become clear that the special situation in Austria with accompanying measures such as bee surveillance does not provide legal scope for emergency approvals.
“Due to increasing bans on pesticides in agricultural production, special crops such as sugar beet will increasingly be displaced,” the beet growers’ association warned in a broadcast on Wednesday. “Proof of this is the fact that sugar imports into the European Union have increased over the past year. Those quantities of sugar mainly came from abroad.”
Criticism of the EU
“It probably cannot be in the EU’s interest to reduce production in this country, ban everything and thus put on the green mantle, while opening the door to imports from regions that are far from comparable to the production. EU standards,” criticized the beet grower’s president, Ernst Karpfinger.
“The latest example of this hypocritical double standard is the Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, which the European Union is taking up again and continuing to negotiate,” he said.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
