Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that cane sugar importation from African and Caribbean countries is protected when EU beet sugar quotas are lifted in 2017.

Defra has been working closely with the Department for International Development and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to ensure that the Economic Partnership Agreements between African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and the EU are concluded. This will ensure that African and Caribbean countries continue to benefit from preferential access to the EU for their sugar.