Crop Sugar Loan Rates posted

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) announced loan rates for 2013-crop sugar as required by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which extended the sugar program of the 2008 Farm Bill through Sept. 30, 2014. The 2013-crop national average loan rate is 18.75 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 24.09 cents per pound for refined beet sugar, the same as last year. These national average loan rates are adjusted regionally to reflect marketing cost differentials.  

USDA's Sugar Loan Program provides price support loans to processors of sugar beets and domestically grown sugarcane. Price support loans are nonrecourse; thus, producers have the option of delivering the pledged sugar collateral to the CCC as full payment for the loan at maturity. The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers sugar nonrecourse loans on behalf of the CCC. Sugar and in-process sugar loans are available beginning Oct. 1, 2013, and mature at the earlier of (1) the end of the nine-month period beginning on the first day of the first month after the month in which the loan is made, or (2) the end of the fiscal year in which the loan is made.

Loan Rates for Raw Cane Sugar
The 2013-crop (fiscal year 2014) raw cane sugar loan rates in cents per pound of cane sugar, raw value, are:  

Florida – 18.19
Hawaii – 17.95 (18.75 cents per pound if stored on the mainland)
Louisiana – 19.61
Texas – 18.36  
Sugar beet and sugarcane processors who receive CCC loans in fiscal year 2014 are required to make minimum grower payments for all sugar beets and sugarcane received from growers. Processors failing to meet the required minimum grower payment will be ineligible for loans. Sugar beet grower minimum payments are the amount specified in the grower/processor contract.  

Sugarcane processors must, at minimum, pay growers for their share of production from molasses and sugar per ton of cane as specified here:  
States and minimum payments are:  
Florida – $28.33 per net ton
Hawaii – $31.91 per net ton
Louisiana – $28.50 per gross ton
Texas – $23.37 per gross ton  
CCC has modified the fiscal year 2014 raw sugar loan schedule of premiums and discounts incurred upon forfeiture to reflect regional differences in the raw cane sugar loan rate. These schedules can be found in the FSA Handbook 10-SU, which is available at www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/10-su.pdf or in FSA's state and county offices.

For more information, contact your local USDA Service Center or Barbara Fecso at (202) 720-4146, barbara.fecso@usda.gov.