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Changing high-fructose corn syrup with cane sugar may come at a value, in line with trade consultants.
Bulk high-fructose corn syrup value about $0.35 per pound for 2025, solely rising from $0.27 in 2015, and remaining pretty near this worth previously few years, in line with information from the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA). As compared, the worth 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 offered 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 will likely 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 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 various resulting from 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 problem, in line with Bryan Le, a meals scientist and principal meals marketing consultant at Mendocino Meals Consulting, is that there’s considerably extra corn accessible 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 Pictures / Getty Pictures)
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 mentioned.
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 problem that drives up the price of cane sugar is that the ingredient “requires extra intensive processing and vitality 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 lots of the doable low-cost inputs accessible from the corn trade,” 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 Pictures / Getty Pictures)
In the meantime, the Corn Refiners Affiliation (CRA), argued that there can be extreme financial implications if the trade 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 mentioned that if high-fructose corn syrup was fully eradicated it could 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 lead to short-term losses of $13.9 billion, with losses ultimately reaching between $5.2 billion and $7.5 billion yearly, in line with the group, which highlighted that this might damage 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. ((Photograph by Kevin Carter/Getty Pictures) / Getty Pictures)
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 probably that the corporate would launch a brand new product line that includes cane sugar instead of corn syrup, relatively than pulling its core lineup, which makes use of corn syrup, from cabinets.
“A cane sugar variant would probably carry a premium worth, given the upper value of pure substances. Matching present worth factors would require a major 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 present tariffs on key exporters like Brazil,” he mentioned.