Outdated policies are leading to massive declines in sugar industry jobs.

According to an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau data from the Coalition for Sugar Reform, between 1997 and 2014 U.S. sugar-using industry jobs declined by 18%. The Coalition claimed that outdated U.S. sugar policies are the cause of much of that decline.

The sugar-using industry includes important segments of the American manufacturing economy – from cereal, bread and bakery production, to frozen food, fruit and vegetable canning and confectionery production. The industry, which once employed more than 700,000 American workers, has experienced a decline of 132,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 2014 Annual Survey of Manufactures.

The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that for every sugar-growing job saved through government-mandated high U.S. sugar prices, approximately three American manufacturing jobs are lost. In addition, the sugar program costs U.S. consumers and businesses up to $3.5 billion annually, and cost taxpayers almost a half billion dollars between 2000 and 2001 and nearly $300 million in fiscal year 2013.

“American manufacturers are at a competitive disadvantage today because of the way Congress and the sugar lobby have designed U.S. sugar policy – and, over time, the U.S. sugar program has proven to be a job killer,” said John Downs, Jr., chairman of the Coalition for Sugar Reform and president and CEO of the National Confectioners Association. “It’s time for Congress to reform this outdated program.”

Through a series of marketing allotments, import quotas and price supports, U.S. sugar policy benefits one, small special interest group, while American consumers, taxpayers and businesses foot the bill – not only in dollars, but in employment as well.