The European Commission said it may open the import quota or allow the sale of out-of-quota sugar into the bloc - a move that would bring relief for bakers and other food makers set to negotiate new sugar contracts. The move to consider additional imports contradicts previous statements from the Commission, with it announcing plans in November to issue 350,000 tonnes of export licences for sugar, following on from the extra demand for exports it noted in autmun last year.

This statement by the EU sugar management committee follows a campaign led by member states such as the UK and Portugal, in addition to lobbying from food and drink trade group, the CIUS, that contested EC production figures and urged action to release that out-of-quota sugar on the internal market to ease supply pressures.

Some trade sources have suggested that the amount of out-of-export quota sugar available to sugar users in bloc would be somewhere in the region of 500,000 tonnes. In Europe, the threat of shortages has been enhanced by the movement of world prices above the region's set prices of €404.00 a tonne for white sugar and €335.20 a tonne for raw sugar.

December last year saw one of Portugal’s two main refineries run out of raw sugar and it was forced to shut down.

Meanwhile, traders caution that any additional sugar imports from the bloc could put further strain on global supplies.