The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Nov. 14 that it was soliciting offers to sell Commodity Credit Corp. stocks of sugar under the Feedstock Flexibility Program (F.F.P.) for use in bio-energy production.
The U.S.D.A.’s Farm Service Agency said the C.C.C. acquired 296,500 short tons of sugar on Oct. 1, 2013, in lieu of repayment of remaining 2012 crop year sugar loans.
“The forfeiture of sugar, which was pledged as collateral by processors that receive nonrecourse commodity loans from C.C.C., was due to a severe reduction in sugar prices in FY 2013. This was caused by the U.S./Mexican sugar supply far exceeding demand in our common sugar market,” the U.S.D.A. said.
Under the 2008 farm bill, the C.C.C. is prohibited from selling forfeited sugar for domestic human consumption unless there is an emergency shortage.
“C.C.C. is increasing the minimum F.F.P. bid to 50,000 short tons (100 million lbs) to provide the opportunity for commercial-scale sugar use in bio-energy production,” the department said.
The C.C.C. sold 143,143 short tons of sugar under previous F.F.P. tenders a couple of months back.
Additional details on the latest offer were not yet available.
