Washington (October 21, 2021) – This week, Christine Lantinen, president and owner of Maud Borup Inc., a Minnesota-based candy manufacturing and food gift company, testified before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations during a hearing on “Global Supply Chains and Small Business Trade Challenges” on the topic of the current sugar program, calling for modernization:

“The Sugar Program inflicts further pain by intentionally prohibiting domestic sugar producers and processors from expanding output in response to supply shortages. Imports cannot fix the situation either because of restrictive federal import quotas. Let me put this simply: the U.S. Sugar Program, a collection of policies written and implemented by Congress, creates supply chain shortages for businesses that need sugar to make their products. If we want to address global supply chains and small business trade challenges, this is a good place to start.”

Lantinen’s full testimony can be found here.

On July 27, the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy introduced the Fair Sugar Policy Act of 2021 (H.R. 4680 /S. 2466) to ensure an adequate supply of sugar based on a reasonable competitive approach that reaches from the farm to the retail shelf – without risking an appropriate safety net for farmers.

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The Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy (AFSP) is a broad-based coalition advocating to modernize the outdated and outrageous U.S. sugar program. Formed by a sizeable group of small, family-owned businesses and manufacturers, retailers, food and beverage companies, trade associations, environmental advocates, taxpayer watchdog organizations, responsible government advocates, think tanks and other organizations, the group’s goal is to help level the playing field for American manufacturers and their families when it comes to being able to create jobs.

To learn more about the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy and the need for sugar reform, please visit FairSugarPolicy.org.