May contract talks alarm sugar beet growers
Contract negotiations are dragging on for Alberta sugar beet producers.
It’s already early May, and Alberta Sugar Beet Growers and Rogers Sugar, the sole sugar-beet processing plant left in Canada, still haven’t hammers out a deal.
Jennifer Crowson, executive director with the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers, cautioned the Western Producer in an email that she was limited in what she can share, other than that they are still in active negotiations.
“We are hopeful to get to an agreement,” Crowson had said in an earlier telephone call April 25.
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“Obviously, we would like seed in the ground sooner rather than later. We still have some time.”
Sugar beets can be planted in May, but a farmer who has planted the crop before said in a text to the Producer that the third week of May is pushing the limits, and the crop is often in the ground by now.
Optimum sugar beet planting is generally seen as late April to early May, as long as the soil can be worked and its temperature is at 10 C to avoid early spring frosts.
The last contract two years ago was signed on April 19, according to Crowson. Confirmation on the previous contract in 2021 came on April 1.
According to the Galt Museum and Archives, sugar beets weren’t grown in the area in 1985 due to a break down in contract negotiations over price.
Sugar beets have been grown in the area since 1902.
Reports from 2024 show southern Alberta grew around 850,000 tonnes of the crop on approximately 28,000 acres, across approximately 200 farm operations.
Alberta Sugar Beet Growers was founded in 1925 to support farmers and promote sugar beet production.
The sugar beet industry contributes almost $250 million and 2,150 jobs to Alberta’s economy annually, according to the association’s website.
Source: producer.com