§1359bb Flexible Marketing Allotments for Sugar

Summary

Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to, by August 1 before each crop year from 2008 through 2031, estimate five things for that crop year: how much sugar Americans will eat, how much should be kept as carryover, how much carry-in stock will be available, how much will come from domestic processing of sugarcane, sugar beets, and in-process beet sugar, and how much sugar, syrups, and molasses will be imported for consumption or for extracting sugar (including amounts inside or outside tariff-rate quotas). Those estimates do not cover sugar used to make polyhydric alcohol or sugar that is refined and then shipped out again. The Secretary must update these estimates as needed, and at least by the start of the second, third, and fourth quarters of the crop year. By the start of each crop year, the Secretary must also set marketing allotments for processors of cane, beet, or in-process beet sugar so that marketed sugar for domestic human consumption is enough to keep raw and refined prices above the level that would cause forfeiture to the Commodity Credit Corporation under the sugar loan program, and so that allotments are at least 85% of the estimated domestic consumption. The Secretary can include sugar products mostly made of sucrose. Allotments apply to processed sugar whether produced here or imported. They do not apply when sugar is sold for export (but those exports cannot get reexport credits), when one processor sells to let another meet its allocation, or for nonfood uses except for ethanol or bioenergy handled under the Secretary’s program. Sales to help another processor must be made before May 1 and reported. A processor may not market more than its allocation except for those two exceptions. A processor who knowingly markets too much must pay the Commodity Credit Corporation a penalty equal to three times the U.S. market value of the excess at the time of the violation.