On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:33:38 -0400, Julia Altshuler
> wrote:

>I've heard enough people say that they prefer the taste of cane sugar
>over high fructose corn syrup in sodas and other products that I'm
>wonder what the advantage of HFCS is to producers. Is it less
>expensive, more available, easier in the manufacturing process, some or
>all of the above?
>
>
>I've been on a black cherry soda kick this summer and have been trying
>different brands. So far I seem to like IBC and Polar more than the
>Adirondack and Boylan. I'm not sure I can taste the difference because
>there are other variables. I'll have to wait until spring to try the
>national brands in their cane syrup version and try them side by side
>with the HFCS version.
>
>
>--Lia

h.f.c.s. is cheaper than cane sugar in the u.s. mostly due to tariffs.
from *wikipedia*:

"Many countries subsidize sugar-production heavily. The European
Union, the United States, Japan and many developing countries
subsidize domestic production and maintain high tariffs on imports.
Sugar prices in these countries have often exceeded prices on the
international market by up to three times; today, with world market
sugar futures prices currently strong, such prices typically exceed
world prices by two times."


some think this was done originally to punish cuba after the
revolution in 1933:

"...between one-third and one-half of the shock to Cuban export
earnings after 1930 was caused by the passage, in the United States,
of the Hawley-Smoot tariff of 1930. More precisely, the critical blow
to Cuba was the incorporation into the Hawley-Smoot Act of a
substantial increase in the sugar tariff. Since at the time, Cuba
supplied all theduty-paying sugar imported into the United States,
that particular part of the tariff act was clearly aimed at Cuba."

<http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:SzTiy-H84iwJ:econ.ucalgary.ca/fac-files/rs/Nov27CTARPaper.pdf+sugar+tariffs+cuba&hl=en&ct=cln k&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a>

this is why most coca-cola bottlers in, say, mexico use cane sugar
instead. it is also the reason that, with the price of corn
increasing attendant to subsidies for ethanol, h.f.c.s. is becoming
more costly, and some candy manufacturers are moving to canada and
mexico.

your pal,
blake