Political, Economical and Cultural Barriers to Importing Sugar Cane as a BIO Product from China to EU

Abstract

China is the fourth largest sugarcane producer in the world. The EU is the world's largest importer of cane sugar. That is the question why Chinese influence on the EU market is only marginal and no significant change has occurred since EU quotas on sugarcane import fell in 2017. The paper investigates the reasons why imports of cane sugar from China into the EU keep stagnating despite the liberalization efforts on both markets and growing demand for unrefined brown cane sugar in Europe as a healthier alternative to white sugar from sugar beet plant in Europe. Authors identify the three main barriers to the development of China-EU sugar cane trade. These are political-economic, productive and cultural barriers. Combining all these three elements creates the current state.