Sugar was the only agricultural sector in the European Union where production was subjected to a quota system. It was introduced with the first rules on the sugar common market organization (CMO) in 1968, along with a support price for producers at a level significantly above the world market price. This agricultural quota ended on September 30th, 2017. The abolition brought an end to the production caps on sugar beet and guaranteed minimum prices to farmers. Following the change, the EU had the chance to export around the world rather than import to meet its needs. Many controversial discussions have been around following the ending of sugar production quotes. For some, this strategy was not proper since this will push a rise in EU sugar production at a time when the appetite for sugar is declining in the increasingly health-conscious trading bloc, throwing supplies onto a world market already awash with non-nutritive6 sweeteners. For cane refineries, this implementation was not the ideal case as well since the freedom on the production quotes was mostly in the interest of beet manufacturers as there are more beet sugar producers than cane refiners and regulations mostly concentrate on producers but not on the import tariffs.
Through the ‘Sugar’ value chain another important actor is the confectionary sector. Confectionery defines foods with relatively high sugar content. It represents one of the strongest sales segments in the food market. It accounted for 11% of the food revenue and 5% of volume sales in 2018 in the world. In 2018, confectionery sales increased by 5.2% in comparison to 2017 and reached €350bn and 59,89 billion kg. In terms of total revenue in the market; Europe is the 2nd in market share followed by South America with a total market share of ~11% in 20194. Chocolate and chocolate products, sugar confectionery (such as chewing gum, sweets (hard and soft candies), and pastries or biscuits), and ice cream are the main product segments of this industry. According to the annual report of CAOBISCO (Chocolate, Biscuits & Confectionery of Europe)5, 8.7% of the total European food innovation came from this sector in 2016. In addition, SMEs were supplying 99% of the employment in the sector. In this project, our focus will be the chocolate and sugar confectionery products which had ~60% of the total confectionery revenue in 2019.
SuChAQuality focuses on the quality and authenticity problems of these two sectors which are closely related and feed each other. Beet sugar and confectionery industries will be the main stakeholders.
Overall Objectives are listed as;
o To set up a network consisting of partners having expertise in different analytical techniques; data analysis and hardware design;
o To explore the potential of reliable and affordable analytical methods for predicting the authenticity of sugar and to develop methods for measuring the quality parameters of sugar and chocolate confectionery products while transferring the expertise of different partners within the consortium and contributing to the ‘Sugar’ value chain.
