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Changing high-fructose corn syrup with cane sugar may come at a value, in line with business consultants.
Bulk high-fructose corn syrup price about $0.35 per pound for 2025, solely rising from $0.27 in 2015, and remaining pretty near this worth prior to now few years, in line with knowledge from the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA). Compared, the value of refined white sugar is $1.01, which is up considerably from $0.61 in 2015.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump relayed that Coca-Cola agreed to make use of “actual” cane sugar in Coke bought in america.
“I’ve been chatting with Coca-Cola about utilizing REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in america, they usually have agreed to take action,” Trump wrote on Fact Social. “I’d prefer to thank all of these in authority at Coca-Cola. This shall be an excellent transfer by them — You’ll see. It’s simply higher!”
Coca-Cola has not confirmed whether or not it’s making this swap. FOX Enterprise reached out to Coca-Cola for remark.
Within the Nineteen Eighties, the beverage large swapped cane sugar, which got here with excessive tariffs, for high-fructose corn syrup. Excessive-fructose corn syrup was the cheaper different on account of corn farming subsidies.
Regardless of such reward, consultants say there are monetary penalties of the swap to cane sugar for the buyer in addition to farmers.
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The primary situation, in line with Bryan Le, a meals scientist and principal meals marketing consultant at Mendocino Meals Consulting, is that there’s considerably extra corn out there within the U.S. in comparison with cane sugar.
A farmer inspects corn forward of a harvest in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, US, on Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. (Brad Vest/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
Corn represents the No. 1 crop produced within the U.S., with the overwhelming majority of states producing it. This implies it the 850 billion kilos of corn produced every year can simply and cheaply be transformed to corn syrup, Le stated.
In the meantime, three states – Texas, Florida and Louisiana – produce 8 billion kilos of cane sugar every year. The remaining sources of cane sugar are from Mexico, which is dealing with tariffs.
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One other situation that drives up the price of cane sugar is that the ingredient “requires extra intensive processing and power to crystallize, filter and remodel it right into a white product,” in line with Le.
“It’s a lot much less complicated of a course of to supply high-fructose corn syrup from most of the doable low-cost inputs out there from the corn business,” he added.
Baggage of Sysco Corp. cane sugar sit stacked on the firm’s distribution facility in Des Plaines, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
In the meantime, the Corn Refiners Affiliation (CRA), argued that there can be extreme financial implications if the business eradicated high-fructose corn syrup, which the group says has been “a foundational ingredient within the U.S. meals provide for almost half a century.”
The affiliation stated that if high-fructose corn syrup was utterly eradicated it will slash corn costs by as much as $0.34 per bushel, wiping out $5.1 billion in income to farms.
“The ensuing financial shockwave would result in rural job losses and important financial penalties to communities throughout the nation,” the affiliation wrote in a July report.
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The corn refining demand loss from HFCS, glucose, dextrose and starch may end in short-term losses of $13.9 billion, with losses finally reaching between $5.2 billion and $7.5 billion yearly, in line with the group, which highlighted that this is able to harm native economies, “particularly in areas anchored by corn refineries, the place farmers stand to lose $0.25 to $0.50 per bushel in worth premiums alone.”
Two-liter bottles of Coca-Cola soda are displayed at a Costco Wholesale retailer on April 27, 2025 in San Diego, California. ((Picture by Kevin Carter/Getty Photos) / Getty Photos)
Whereas it stays to be seen what Coca-Cola will do, Arun Sundaram, senior fairness analyst at CFRA Analysis, advised FOX Enterprise that it is extra doubtless that the corporate would launch a brand new product line that includes cane sugar rather than corn syrup, reasonably than pulling its core lineup, which makes use of corn syrup, from cabinets.
“A cane sugar variant would doubtless carry a premium worth, given the upper price of pure components. Matching present worth factors would require a big enhance in U.S. manufacturing or imports of cane sugar, a state of affairs that appears unlikely within the close to time period, particularly with current tariffs on key exporters like Brazil,” he stated.
