If you are unsure of the merits of the European Union's bafflingly complex system of agricultural subsidies, here's a reason to suspect they aren't good enough. Hungarian portal Index.hu is today reporting that a quirk in the EU's sugar subsidy system was apparently the final nail in the coffin of a sugar mill that had been keeping Hungarian kitchens sweet since 1899.

To make a very long and complicated story probably too short, it seems that the parent company of Szerencsi Zrt - which operated the mill in the town of Szerencs - decided to shutter the factory after it was unable to source enough sugar beets to reach a "floor" of production as agreed with the EU, in part because the EU offered Hungarian sugar beet growers a similar sweetner to get out of the beet business. So like the growers, the company is taking several tens of millions of euros - €237.50 for every ton of its 100,000 ton quota) to close up shop.

It was the last Hungarian factory owned by Mátra Cukor Zrt, which itself is a unit of the German Nordzucker. Layoffs will begin the week after next.

Again, there is probably a lot going on in the background here, including the question of whether a factory dating from 1899 could in any circumstances stay competitive in a commodity business like sugar. Still, the thought that bureaucrats are deciding where our bakers get their sugar from does leave something of a sour taste.