Swiss origin label requirements eased amid poor sugar beet harvest
Only 40% of the sugar in a product must now come from Switzerland to qualify for the Swiss designation of origin after a poor year for sugar beet, as reported by the Swiss agricultural information service on Thursday.
In principle, 80% of the raw materials in a product with the Swiss designation of origin must come from Switzerland, as stipulated by the so-called ‘Swissness rule’. However, this changes if there are insufficient raw materials available. If the country’s level of self-sufficiency is below 50%, the proportion of Swiss ingredients can also be half as high. According to the agricultural information service, this is now the case for sugar.
‘A year to forget’ for growers
Both the weather and a pest infestation resulted in a low sugar beet harvest in 2023. “Last year was a year to forget. It couldn’t have been worse,” Martin Flury, president of the Schweizerischen Verbandes der Zuckerrübenpflanzer, the Swiss Association of Sugar Beet Growers, was quoted as saying by the agricultural information service.
More
The challenges of being a vegan cheesemaker in Switzerland
The beet harvest was affected by rain in the autumn and the plant disease syndrome des basses richesses (SBR), which results in a low sugar content. According to the agricultural information service, it was detected for the first time in four samples in eastern Switzerland in 2023. Previously, it had only been found in western Switzerland.
In addition, the sugar beet weevil, a pest of North African origin, was discovered for the first time. The weevil loves heat and drought, explained Flury: “We hope that it doesn’t spread any further.”
More
Why Swiss farmers are rising in protest
Andreas Blank, chairman of the board of directors of Swiss sugar manufacturer Schweizer Zucker AG, told agricultural information service that the aim was to increase the level of self-sufficiency again, as reducing the necessary proportion of Swiss sugar risks the industry becoming increasingly reliant on imported sugar.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kp/amva
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
The global private education industry is coming for Switzerland’s expensive schools
More
Silent power guzzlers: Switzerland’s booming data centres
More
What expats are looking for on the Swiss housing market
More
Can democracy still make a place richer?
More
Will Switzerland finally do away with imputed rental-value tax on homeowners?
News
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.