BEGHIN-SAY SAYS SUGAR OFFER TO EC STILL STANDS
A plan by European producers to sell
854,000 tonnes of sugar to European Community intervention
stocks still stands, Andrea Minguzzi, an official at French
sugar producer Beghin-Say, said.
    Last week Beghin-Say president Jean-Marc Vernes said a
possible settlement of a row with the EC would lead producers
to withdraw their offer, which was made as a protest against EC
export licensing policies.
    The EC policy is to offer export rebates, which fail to
give producers an equivalent price to that which they would get
by offering sugar into intervention stocks, Vernes said.
    But Minguzzi said the offer was a commercial affair and
that producers had no intention of withdrawing the sugar offer
already lodged with intervention boards of different European
countries. He said final quality approval for all the sugar
offered could come later this week. Some 95 pct had already
cleared quality specifications.
    The EC can only reject an offer to sell into intervention
stocks on quality grounds. Minguzzi added that under EC
regulations, the Community has until early May to pay for the
sugar. He declined to put an exact figure on the amount of
sugar offered by Beghin-Say, but said it was below 500,000
tonnes.
 Reuter
