US corn farmers lobby to overturn sugar programme

Chicago

THE powerful US corn lobby is launching an unusual offensive against the country's sugar sector, an old foe in the lucrative sweetener market: seeking to overturn the controversial, near-century old US sugar programme.

The Corn Refiners Association, which represents high-fructose corn syrup producers, has hired Washington lobbyist firm, the Alpine Group, to challenge sugar's long-protected status, a spokesman for the organisation said last Thursday.