This year’s sugar cane harvest on La Réunion Island will undoubtedly be one of the smallest in recent decades. It will be difficult to reach or even exceed 1.3 million tonnes. Is the continued operation of the 2 factories under threat?

The Reunionese Communist Party (PCR) notes that this downturn follows the abolition of the sugar quota and guaranteed price in 2017. This decision was taken in 2013 by a vote of EU agriculture ministers. The French representative followed this suicidal vote, even though the planned quota of 300,000 tonnes of sugar produced on La Réunion was only a tiny fraction of the 16 million tonnes on the European market. As a direct result, since 2017, the area under sugar cane plantations has fallen by nearly 2,000 hectares, or almost 10%, according to a study by the Ministry of Agriculture.

A few weeks after the 2013 decision, the European Commissioner for Agriculture visited Réunion, accompanied by Younous Omarjee, Member of the European Parliament. When questioned, the European Commissioner said that with the end of the sugar quota, the future of the industry would now depend on the strategy of the manufacturer.

However, there is only one manufacturer on La Réunion. It is Tereos Océan Indien, a subsidiary of a Brazilian company, Tereos Internacional, itself a subsidiary of Tereos, a cooperative of beet growers in France. The strike at Albioma illustrated this strategy: make the planters bear the cost of the conflict, not Tereos. Tereos closed its factories to preserve its profitability. Planters were unable to deliver and be paid by Tereos during this period. The losses are significant. They come on top of persistent cash-flow problems, which have led some growers to give up growing sugar cane.

This cash flow problem is linked to the fact that income from sugar cane planting is too low, given the sharp rise in production costs in recent years. The majority of the price paid to growers is now made up of public subsidies, with Tereos contributing just under 40%.

The PCR supports the unanimous call for full transparency of the wealth generated from sugar cane by Tereos on La Réunion and its partners in the cane-sugar-alcohol-energy sector. It is unfair for the company to keep planters in the dark. This transparency should make it possible to calculate a fairer distribution of wealth, to the benefit of growers.

The PCR points out that Tereos is a cooperative of beet growers, but that on La Réunion, sugar cane planters are not involved in the decisions that affect them. All they do is deliver the raw material, and the price they pay depends essentially on the sale of a single product. In 2021, a report on the sector commissioned by the government made the following proposal: ‘Advocate opening up the capital of Tereos Indian Ocean to local players in Réunion’. If Tereos has nothing to hide, all we have to do is apply this common-sense proposal.

The PCR calls on the 2 Reunionese MEPs who sit in the European Parliament to take these demands to the highest level. The European Union must correct the consequences of its political decisions.

PCR Press Office