American trade action may close a sugar plant in Alberta, a company official warned last week.
Daniel Lafrance, vice-president and chief financial officer of Rogers Sugar Canada, said his company would be forced to close one of its two western Canadian plants if the United States carried through on a threat to reduce access for a sugar beet product.
The Rogers plant in Taber, Alta., would be the logical target, Lafrance said.
He told the Senate agriculture committee on Oct. 24 that 20 percent of Taber’s production in the last year was beet thick juice, which has been shipped to the U.S. where it is refined into sugar.
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To protect the American sugar industry, the U.S. is considering restricting that flow, as it does on other sugar products entering the market. Thick juice, subject to value-added upgrading at American plants, has been excluded from restrictions in the past.
Lafrance said if access is restricted, Rogers plants in Taber and Vancouver would be reduced to operating at 55 percent capacity or less and almost certainly production would be consolidated in the Vancouver plant.
He said there would be few options for the southern Alberta plant, which employs 80 people full time and 250 seasonal workers and buys sugar beets from 250 area producers.
“The options are very slim, to be honest with you,” Lafrance said. “What can we do with Taber? We looked at chicory, as an example, in order to keep the plant running. We are also talking about organic sugar but it is a small market. We applied to do a study on ethanol. I think that is a long shot. We do not have many opportunities in the sugar market for Taber.”
The irony is that the domestic sugar beet industry is in trouble because of freer trade.
Canada has an open border on sugar imports and much of the domestic market is supplied by foreign product. Trade deals have restricted exports.
