Newsroom

Supply of industrial sugar

24 November 2004

The OFT received a complaint from the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionary Association (BCCCA) about the level of industrial sugar prices in the UK. The OFT shares the concern about sugar prices but has decided that neither a Competition Act investigation nor a market study under the Enterprise Act is appropriate at present in view of the current reform of the EU sugar Common Market Organisation (CMO).

The CMO is part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and, in its current form, restricts and distorts competition. In July this year, the European Commission published proposals for a major reform of the sugar CMO, planned to take effect in July 2005. 

The OFT will press for reforms to promote greater competition in the sugar market and will assess the market in the light of the changes that the Commission's reforms should bring.

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