Tate & Lyle's sugar refinery in Silvertown employs 850 workers and is at risk of closure due to EU agricultural policy that favors European sugar beet growers. The Common Agricultural Policy restricts sugar cane imports and tariffs, raising European sugar prices. As a result, Tate & Lyle has reduced production and jobs. The company is lobbying the EU to reform the CAP and allow fair competition between sugar cane and beet when the policy is reformed in 2015. The future of the 130-year old factory and jobs in Newham depend on the outcome.

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Tate & Lyle
fighting EU
for survival850 jobs threatened by Eurocrats in Brussels
Sugar firm fights ‘unfair advantage’ of Europe’s farms
Coming weeks hold the key to future of factory
The Tate & Lyle factory in Silvertown
Full story pages 10-11

2. News: Tate & Lyle’s Fight to Survive
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The future of a giant fac-
tory which has stood along
the London Docks for more
than 130 years is at risk of
closure thanks to EU policy.
Tate & Lyle Sugars which
employs about 850 people
at its refinery, straddling
across 45 acres in Silver-
town, is currently locked in
a battle with Brussels over a
policy which gives Europe’s
sugar beet producers an
“unfair” advantage over the
UK’s sugar cane refineries.
The Common Agricultur-
al Policy (CAP) was set up
in 1962 to protect European
farmers and food supply af-
ter the founding members
of the European Commu-
nity emerged from more
than a decade of severe food
shortages during and after
the Second World War.
But the policy has proved
controversial with member
states where agriculture
makes up only a small part
of the economy such as the
UK, who say it favours the
French and German.
Thanks to its colonial past
Britain has the biggest cane
sugar industry in Europe
– and the Tate & Lyle site
in Silvertown supplies 40
per cent of Europe’s entire
sugar cane needs.
Sugar cane only grows
outside Europe – and Tate &
Lyle imports it from the Car-
ibbean, Africa and increas-
ingly Asia.
By contrast, sugar beet
is grown in Europe where
some of the biggest produc-
ers are France, Germany,
Poland, and Holland.
Since 2010 the CAP has
restricted the import of
sugar cane, adding tariffs
of up to £300 a tonne, and
the policy makes European
sugar prices twice as high
as everywhere else – with
the world average price re-
cently standing at £322 per
tonne compared to £630 per
tonne in Europe.
As a direct result Tate &
Lyle has had to reduce its
yearly output of sugar from
1.1 million tonnes until 2009
to 700,000 tonnes. And last
year 30 workers were laid
off, while production now
operates five days instead
of seven days a week – after
the company lost more than
£32million.
Unshackled
But with 850 workers the fac-
tory is still Newham’s second
largest private employer af-
ter London City Airport – in
what’s has been reported as
Britain’s worst unemploy-
ment blackspot.
The company’s vice presi-
dent Gerald Mason said: “In
the long term we won’t
be able to survive unless
both the import quotas and
duties on sugar cane are
unshackled.
“We are not asking for pref-
erential treatment. It’s not
that we think sugar cane is
better than sugar beet, we are
just asking to be able to trade
under fair terms.
“It is hard for staff here to
understand when they have
done their best to make the
factory efficient and they are
all highly skilled.
“Some of them are from
families who have worked
here for generations going
back 100 years.”
But the problem goes back
even further than the EU
according to Mr Mason. He
said: “The problem started
back in the 1800s when there
was a shortage in the import
of cane sugar to Europe be-
cause of the many wars.
“Scientists then invented
a way of extracting sugar
from beet. Ever since then
there has been an uneasy
balance in the market and in
policy between the two types
of sugar. Our method is the
traditional one, while sugar
beet is the newcomer on the
block and we get trapped in
the system.”
Mr Mason also said that
the policy is unfair against
developing countries.
He said: “Sugar cane helps
link some of the world’s poor-
est countries to the market
place and gives consumers a
choice.”
Despite sugar cane travel-
ling across the world and up
the Thames in large ocean
vessels to reach Silvertown,
Mr Mason says the environ-
mental footprint is actually
much less than then carbon
footprint left behind by the
large trucks carrying sugar
beet across Europe.
He added: “Only 15 per cent
of the plant is used for sugar,
the rest is fibre which is used
to power the mill.”
And if the factory goes
under it will not only affect
workers at the factory.
“We are one of the largest
users of the Thames and a
downturn for us would also
affect the Port of London and
the viability of the river if it
is not used as much,” Mr Ma-
son said.
The problem is also that
sugar beet growers cannot
meet all Europe’s needs and
if the British cane sugar in-
dustry goes down prices will
rise even further, he said.
The coming months are go-
ing to be crucial in trying to
reform the CAP policy for the
period between 2015 to 2020.
The company has had to ded-
icate a team of three people
who are trying to lobby EU
officials.
Mr Mason said: “We are
getting more allies from
other member states such as
Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Por-
tugal and Finland. And we’re
hopeful that people are begin-
ning to understand reform is
urgently needed.”
East Ham MP Stephen
Timms, has also been active
in trying to argue the compa-
ny’s case both at home and in
Brussels.
Mr Timms, who is also
shadow minister of state for
employment said: “There
has been a series of deci-
sions in recent years which
have given sugar cane refin-
eries an unfair playing field
compared to the sugar beet
industry.
“If the CAP is not reformed
then there is a very real risk
to the future of Tate & Lyle,
which I care deeply about.
The factory is very important
to employment in Newham.”
EU rules threaten
future of refinery
‘We’re just asking to trade under fair terms’
The Tate & Lyle factory seen from the Docks
The Queen speaks to Tate & Lyle packing area supervisor
Teresa Croxford, 58, during a visit in 2010
Tate&Lyle vice president
Gerald Mason
MP Stephen Timms
Tate & Lyle sugar on the production belt
We are one of
the largest users
of the Thames and
a downturn for us
would also affect the
Port of London and
the viability of the
river if it is not used
as much
Gerald Mason
Vice president
Tate & Lyle
10 Wednesday April 3, 2013
by Else Kvist
else.kvist@archant.co.uk

3. Wednesday April 3, 2013 11
Sugar cane is the world’s
tallest crop, and is a giant
grass measuring from
6-19ft tall. It grows in
tropical and semitropical
regions.
Sugar beet is a root crop,
rather like the parsnip,
which grows in temperate
climates in Europe.
France and Germany
are among the largest
producers.
Sugar cane vs
sugar beet:
A travelling exhibition is
celebrating the lives of factory
women at Tate & Lyle through a
selection of original photography,
film and memorabilia.
The Working Women of
Newham: Sugar Girls’ Exhibition
is coming to Beckton Library
from Friday (April 5) until
May 10.
Executive director of Newham
New Deal Partnership, Jessica
Wannamaker, who is putting on
the display, said: “We have created
this travelling exhibition to
highlight Newham’s impressive
industrial heritage, in particular
showcasing the working lives of
Newham women and the effects
on their communities during and
after World War Two. We want
to know about their aspirations
through pictures and anecdotes
that can be shared with others.”
The exhibition features a
memory wall for visitors to
contribute to, by writing about
personal experiences or stories
passed down by family members.
A photographic wall with
images of the factory women will
also be shown.
Tate & Lyle sugar girls’ show
Tate & Lyle women workers
The company was formed in 1921
from a merger of two rival sugar
refiners in Silvertown: Henry Tate &
Sons and Abram Lyle & Sons.
Henry Tate had established his
business in 1869 in Liverpool before
expanding to Silvertown in 1878.
Abram Lyle acquired his interest
in sugar refinery in Scotland and later
had a factory at Plaistow Wharf.
Lyle’s Golden Syrup tin, virtually
unchanged since 1885, is Britain’s
oldest brand.
The syrup is still being produced at
a site at Plaistow Wharf.
In 2008 Tate & Lyle granulated
white cane sugar was accredited as a
Fairtrade product – all the company’s
other retail products followed in 2009.
In 2010 the iconic sugar refining
and golden syrup business was
sold to American Sugar Refining for
£211million.
The company is listed on London
Stock Exchange and features on the
FTSE 100 Index.
The Sugar Girls, a book based on
true stories of women who worked at
Tate & Lyle’s two Silvertown factories
from the 1940s-60s, was published
last year.
Tate & Lyle – it’s a fact
Wednesday April 3, 2013 11
News: Tate & Lyle’s Fight to Survive