USDA Announces Fiscal Year 2023 Sugar Loan Rates, Allotment and Marketing Allocations

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) today announced sugar loan rates for crop year 2022 (fiscal year 2023). CCC also announced sugar beet and sugarcane allotments and processor marketing allocations for the fiscal year 2023 domestic sugar program. 

Marketing Assistance Loan Rates
USDA offers commodity loans to processors of sugar beets and domestically grown sugarcane to provide interim financing to producers so that sugar can be stored after harvest when market prices are typically low and then sold later when price conditions are more favorable. The 2018 Farm Bill increased the national average loan rate to 19.75 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 25.38 cents per pound for refined beet sugar. These rates are adjusted regionally to reflect marketing cost differentials.

Loans are available beginning Oct. 1, 2022, and mature at the end of the nine-month period beginning the first day of the first month after the month in which the loan is made, or the end of the fiscal year in which the loan is made, whichever is earlier. Producers have the option to deliver the pledged sugar collateral to CCC as full payment for the loan at maturity.

Loan Rates for Refined Beet Sugar
The refined beet sugar processing regions and applicable 2022-crop (fiscal year 2023) loan rates in cents per pound of refined beet sugar are:

• Michigan and Ohio – 26.30
• Minnesota and the eastern half of North Dakota – 25.17
• Northeastern quarter of Colorado, Nebraska and the southeastern quarter of Wyoming – 26.20
• Montana, northwestern quarter of Wyoming and the western half of North Dakota – 25.33
• Idaho, Oregon and Washington – 25.18
• California – 26.30

Loan Rates for Raw Cane Sugar
The 2022-crop (fiscal year 2023) raw cane sugar loan rates in cents per pound of cane sugar, raw value are:

• Florida – 18.93
• Louisiana – 20.65
• Texas – 19.49

Note: Hawaii stopped producing sugar in January 2017 and hence, requires no loan rate.

Sugar beet and sugarcane processors who receive CCC loans in fiscal year 2023 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. State minimum payments are:

• Florida – $27.92 per net ton
• Louisiana – $30.78 per gross ton
• Texas – $28.78 per gross ton

CCC has not modified the fiscal year 2023 raw sugar loan schedule of premiums and discounts because the raw cane sugar loan rate has not changed. These schedules can be found in the Farm Service Agency (FSA) handbook 10-SU, or in FSA’s state and county offices.

Fiscal Year 2023 Sugar Allotment and Marketing Allocations
CCC also announces the fiscal year 2023 overall sugar marketing allotment, which is established at 10,646,250 short tons, raw value (STRV). The overall sugar marketing allotment is set at 85%  of the estimated quantity of sugar for domestic human consumption for the crop year of 12,525,000 STRV as forecast in the September 2022 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report. By law, a fixed percentage of the overall sugar marketing allotment is to be assigned to the beet sector and the cane sector. CCC will distribute the fiscal year 2023 beet sugar allotment of 5,786,237 STRV (54.35% of the overall sugar marketing allotment) among sugar beet processors and the cane sugar allotment of 4,860,013 STRV (45.65% of the overall sugar marketing allotment) among sugarcane States and processors.

By law, CCC must allot 325,000 STRV of the cane sector allotment to sugarcane producing states located outside of the continental United States (“offshore States”). CCC has determined that there are currently no offshore states. As a result, CCC is reassigning the 325,000 STRV of offshore cane sector allotment to the mainland States of Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

CCC determined that farm-level proportionate shares are not necessary in Louisiana in fiscal year 2023, the only state eligible for proportionate shares, because the cane sugar sector is not expected to fill its allotment.

USDA will closely monitor stocks, consumption, imports and all sugar market and program variables on an ongoing basis. USDA will continue to administer the sugar program as transparently as possible using the latest available data and adjust as necessary to ensure adequate supplies of both raw and refined sugar in the domestic market.

The fiscal year 2023 sugar marketing state allotments and processor allocations are listed in the table below:

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America.