[Richard Kimball]

The US has a high tariff on sugar imported for food production. It does not affect pure sugar sold on shelves. The reason food manufacturers went to corn syrup was not the raw price of sugar, but the price after the tariffs. That's also why Hershey went to Mexico. It wasn't labor prices, it was the price of sugar. They can manufacture the chocolate bar in Mexico and import the entire bar (no tariff on finished products containing sugar) cheaper than they can bring the raw sugar in and manufacture the bar in the US.

I think Archer Daniels Midland is the force behind the tariff, as the reason for the tariff is to force food manufacturers to go to corn syrup rather than sugar, and ADM is heavily invested in corn. They also pushed ethanol.

[Dr. Sivana]

The reason food manufacturers went to corn syrup was not the raw price of sugar, but the price after the tariffs.

They also like the fact that HFCS is a liquid, and can be hauled in tanker cars. Bakers like the browning effect it gives on baked goods.

[grame]

I heard that about Hershey somewhere else. But the price of the shelf sugar has gone up about 20 cents per pound in the last 3 or 4 months. I don't eat too much processed food, but I live in a corn growin’ state and know that there is a lot of emotion on both sides of that issue.