Alberta sugar beet growers had a good production year, delivering 668,087 tonnes to the Lantic sugar factory in Taber. Average yield was 27.69 tonnes per acre and average sugar content was 18.53 percent.
Optimal harvest weather fostered one of the quickest beet harvests ever, lasting Oct. 1 to 28.
Growers planted 24,425 acres of beets, a reduction from the expected 30,000.
“That is about 29 percent less than our full quota allotment, without a doubt a big blow to the growers,” said Michel Camps, a director with the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers.
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In his report to the ASBG annual meeting, Camps said reduced beet acres coupled with plummeting grain prices made it a challenge for growers to fill their irrigation pivot circles with profitable crops this year.
Executive director Gerald Third said the unexpected reduction in contracted acres led to an arbitration of contract terms, which was resolved in Lantic’s favour at the end of April.
Wind and poor emergence after April seeding forced the replanting of 1,300 acres of beets. Major hailstorms damaged 7,194 acres and 230 acres were destroyed by wind.
Rob Boras, ASBG president, said growers have been told that 24,000 acres will be contracted in the coming crop year, the last in the current three-year agreement between the growers and Lantic.
Negotiations will begin later this year on a new agreement.
“We attempted to lock in a base price in our last master agreement and we’ve got one more year of that to give us financial stability,” he said.
“Ours is a domestic market. Ninety percent of the Canadian market is supplied by foreign sourced sugar, so right now what they’re buying on the world market is cheap. In the next round of negotiations, we don’t know where that’s going to take us.”
