CRUCIAL evidence which could affect about 2,000 jobs in and around York dependent on a home-grown sugar industry was being given to the government this week.

Newton-on-Ouse sugar grower Mike Blacker, who is chairman of the national sugar board for the National Farmers' Union, has been testifying to the government's Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs' (DEFRA) select committee on the proposed review of the sugar industry across Europe.

Mr Blacker wants the committee to steer away from eventual abolition of quotas and total liberalisation of a control-free market when it reports in June.

It is an option which, he says will result in severe price cuts - probably around 40 per cent - with EU sugar beet prices plummeting to about £10 per tonne and growers pulling out of the industry.

"The British Sugar industry is one of the most efficient in Europe, with more than £1 billion invested since 1980 to improve efficiency, promote new technology and maintain environmental standards," said Mr Blacker.

"It is vital that in this review our strengths and efficiency are taken into account and are not discriminated against. We are adamant that the outcome must be a stable market that allows the industry, whether in the EU or in developing countries, to invest long-term."

The UK's 7,000 sugar producers, who produce about 1.1 million tonnes of sugar every year for home consumption, widely accept that some reform is necessary to help to shield lesser developed and developing countries, of "dumping" of surplus European sugar on the world markets.

But Mr Blacker is arguing that the UK is different because half its sugar requirements are already imported from developing countries and while UK growers inevitably produce a little over quota, there is no financial incentive to produce sugar for export.

Mr Blacker and other producers favour another option - for a stable market.

This would see the sugar industry continue to be controlled by a managed system, but with some reduction both in quota and price.

"We have developed a successful and responsible sugar industry in this country and that's something we must maintain. Almost 1,500 local growers supply British Sugar's York factory, so it's hard to underestimate the importance of this industry to the local economy."

Rosey Dunn, the NFUs county chairman for York and the East Riding and herself a grower for British Sugar in York at her farm at Stockton-on-the-Forest, said: "A dramatic price drop could mean growers pulling out and the loss of hundreds of jobs in a wide radius of York.

"We have lobbied MPs and written to DEFRA stressing the importance of sugar as a crop as a source of stable, reliable income which has a set contract and set prices."

Updated: 09:49 Friday, May 07, 2004