THE livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of sugar farmers in poor countries are being put at risk by changes to European farming rules, the Fairtrade Foundation said.

The warning comes as the latest figures showed a drop of 3.7 per cent in the estimated value of UK sales of Fairtrade products to £1.6 billion last year in the face of falling grocery spending.

Some Fairtrade products have performed well, with banana sales growing three per cent by volume and coffee up two per cent, but tea and cocoa sales fell slightly, while sugar is seeing a decline in sales as a result of EU reforms and a falling global sugar price.

While world leaders are set to agree United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to reduce global poverty this year, a decision to lift a cap on EU sugar beet production could hit hundreds of thousands of people in the world's poorest countries.

Lifting the cap means small-scale sugar cane farmers in places such as Africa and the Caribbean will be unable to compete with European sugar beet farmers, who receive subsidies under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, the Fairtrade Foundation said.

UK Government research shows 200,000 people could be pushed into poverty by the ending of the sugar beet quota in Europe.

The move comes at a time when global sugar prices have halved in three years, making it even harder for struggling sugar cane farmers to keep going, and threatens Fairtrade sugar which could be priced out of the market as too expensive.

There are even concerns the traditional cane sugar widely used in British baking could be lost if it is priced out by cheap beet sugar.

Michael Gidney, Fairtrade Foundation chief executive, said: "We cannot stand by and watch as thousands of sugar cane farmers in developing countries, who have supplied the UK for generations - and in some cases, been encouraged with EU funds to grow more sugar - lose their livelihoods.

"This is not a levelling of the playing field, because European beet sugar farmers get a subsidy from the EU."

He called on the UK's Department for International Development to take a lead in finding a new approach that puts farmers first, as a quarter of sugar imports from poor countries come to this country.