A group of former European colonies will soon sit down with EU negotiators to thrash out compensation for the end to decades of duty-free access for sugar, a top revenue-earner for many of their economies.
EU farm ministers are now discussing plans to reform sugar policy, little altered in more than 35 years. The system keeps internal prices at more than three times above the world market. A key proposal is to slash those prices by around 40 per cent.
But before any deal is reached, the EU has pledged to offer tailor-made packages to compensate African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries for revenue losses from their guaranteed EU raw cane sugar sales of some 1.5 million tonnes a year.
The negotiations are certain to be politically sensitive and will start even before ministers open a full-scale debate on the reform. So far, they have only sketched out vague positions.
Although guaranteed ACP import volumes should be retained, the reform will cause a hefty income loss for the group, possibly as much as €250 million a year, based on a new ACP raw sugar price of €329 per tonne - 37 per cent lower than now.
"It's possibly the most difficult aspect of sugar reform, how we arrive at something that isn't devastating to the ACP countries," said an official at one EU national sugar authority.
"The idea is to start negotiations for compensation in the autumn. There would have to be tailor-made agreements, country by country," a Commission official said. "But it won't be something that will be wrapped up in a couple of weeks."