Dive Brief:
- Producers of high-fructose corn syrup have opened negotiations for next year's contracts with price cuts of 10%, according to Reuters.
- Both Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland are looking to lock in buyers amid historically low prices for sugar and growing concerns about health risks associated with HFSC.
- HFSC is generally much cheaper than sugar. But market forces have turned things upside down. Earlier this year, spot prices for sugar fell to a discount to HFSC for the first time ever.
Dive Insight:
We've been pretty clear about our dislike of sugar subsidies. But we also count ourselves among the folks who prefer our soft drinks made with sugar, not HFSC. So we're a little torn when we hear that HFSC prices are being cut. We'd like to imagine that we'll soon all be drinking sugar-sweetened drinks by summertime. But the truth is that it would take some pretty substantial drops in sugar prices to convince drink makers to cover the costs associated with switching ingredients. And our sense is that HFSC producers are showing quite clearly that they can be flexible enough with their pricing to keep that from happening.