Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan said today European Union plans to reform the sugar industry were "simply not acceptable."
The Commission is proposing radical changes to the EU's sugar policy including sharp cuts to minimum prices and production quotas in a subsidy-laden regime that has barely changed since 1968.
"The Commission has just adopted its sugar reform proposals," said Michael Mann, the Commission's spokesman for agriculture, earlier.
"We believe there is no alternative to this reform if the EU sugar industry is to have a viable long-term future."
The proposal, adopted by the 25-strong EU executive at its regular meeting, will now be discussed and negotiated by EU agriculture ministers.
But Ms Coughlan, while acknowledging there was need for reform, said the proposals were unbalanced and could lead to drastic consequences for the sugar beet industry in a number of memberstates including Ireland.
She said the proposals would be considered in the coming weeks and months in the Council of Ministers and she would work with "like-minded colleagues to have the proposals modified".
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) said earlier the EU plans would have a "devastating" effect on the Irish industry.
The national chairman of the sugar beet section of the IFA, Jim O’Regan said the proposals could signal the death knell for the industry in Ireland.
The aim is to reach a deal in November, with the reform to begin in July 2006.
The Commission wants to slash the EU's white sugar support price by 39 per cent and the minimum beet price by 42 per cent.
But Mr O’Regan said: "This is devastating."
He claimed: "It's a calculated and deliberate attempt to wipe out beet growing in the peripheral regions including Ireland. The industry simply cannot sustain those kind of price cuts."
EU sugar prices are now more than three times the world market. Its objective is to achieve a radical change in the EU's supply structure with lower production and exports, offset by more imports from developing countries.
EU producers unable to cope with lower revenues will be offered generous compensation. Sugar firms struggling with sharply lower revenues that wish to leave the sector will be able to sell their annual production quotas to Brussels under a generous four-year buyback scheme.
Beet growing has long been the cornerstone of Ireland's tillage industry, with some 3,700 growers farming around 70,000 acres to produce an annual sugar quota of around 200,000 tonnes.
The latest development resulted in Stockbrokers yesterday predicting that Irish Sugar Ltd's profits could be hit harder than previously anticipated.
The quotas and guaranteed prices, which pay farmers up to three times the "un-subsidised" world price are to be reduced; import restrictions on non-EU producers are to be lifted; and export subsidies worth millions, which lead to dumping of excess sugar on the world market, are to be phased out.
