Irish Farmer Association (IFA) president John Dillon and a group of 50 Irish sugar beet farmers will join a protest in Brussels next Monday against the European Commission's proposed reform of the sugar industry.
Sugar beet farmers protesting outside the EU Commission offices in Dublin last month over EU sugar reform proposals.
Up to 6,500 beet farmers from 21 countries plan to gather in the Belgium capital where EU agricultural ministers are due to hold their first full-scale debate on a radical reform proposal that calls for hefty cuts to minimum sugar and beet prices, and production.
Farmers say the reform will cause job losses and flood Europe with cheaper sugar from leading producer Brazil.
"The proposed sugar reform threatens the existence of European beet growing. It would only benefit Brazil and international traders," said Otto von Arnold, president of the International Confederation of Beet Growers (CIBE).
CIBE estimates the reform would put 120,000 farmers out of work over two years and cause the loss of 150,000 jobs that are directly and indirectly linked with the sugar industry.
Although the reform plan offers farmers 60 per cent compensation for income losses, CIBE said this was not nearly enough to offset the drastic price cuts; a cumulative reduction of 42.5 per cent is foreseen for minimum beet prices over two years.
"Those who are going to die are the weakest, that's the logic of the commission's proposal," Hubert Chavanes, CIBE's general secretary, told a news conference. "Farmers will stop [growing beet] in all countries, even in the most productive. Everybody will suffer," he said.
Sugar beet is grown by more than 325,000 farmers in all 25 EU countries except for Cyprus, Estonia, Luxembourg and Malta. Poland is home to 89,000 beet farmers, by far the largest number in any one country; Germany ranks in second place with 48,000.