Sugar-free drink maker was banned from US

The stevia plant has been used to sweeten food for hundreds of years It is related to the daisy and rag weed and grows in China and South America The leaf has no calories and is 200 times sweeter than sugar In Paraguay and Brazil it has been used for m

SHARES in PureCircle jumped 7.5pc after a US ban on imports was lifted.

Authorities had seized shipments after allegations surfaced about slave labour in the sugar-free sweetener manufacturer’s supply chain.

PureCircle sources much of its raw material, the stevia leaf, from China.

US Customs and Border Protection officers received information that PureCircle imported stevia from the Inner Mongolia Hengzheng Group Baoanzhao Agricultural and Trade LLC, which was allegedly using forced prison labour.

But PureCircle denied it had used the company, and provided a list of the names and locations of each farmer it bought stevia leaves from.

The eight-month delay saw a 13.4pc fall in sales, with revenues at £38.7m in the six months to December 31.

Shares climbed 7.5pc, or 23p, to 330p, after news the ban had been lifted.