The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers want a national domestic sugar policy, which the organization says could lay the foundation for resurgence in the sector.

Such a policy would regulate the amount of sugar imported into Canada from cane sugar-producing countries like Brazil and India. That would shift focus to home-grown sugar beet production and processing.

“We’re the only G7 country that does not have a domestic sugar policy,” said Jennifer Crowson, the grower group’s executive director. “A sugar policy would protect the sugar beet market and the ability for us to expand the industry.”

The group says its growers produce only eight per cent of the sugar sold in Canada, while the remainder is imported cane sugar. The immediate goal of a domestic sugar policy, as laid out by the Alberta group and its national counterpart, the Canadian Sugar Beet Growers Association, would be to double sugar beets’ market foothold to 16 per cent of national sugar consumption. This would drive investment in refineries and open new grower opportunities.

“Other provinces like Manitoba used to produce sugar beets. If there was a sugar policy, we would be able to expand the market and potentially have other provinces start growing sugar beets again,” said Crowson.

Corporations have expressed interest in building beet sugar infrastructure if there was a policy in place, she added.

“Other industry people and corporations say that, in the event that there was a policy, they would come and build another processing plant.”

There’s at least one major hurdle: federal approval of a policy. That process is coming along slowly, but surely, Crowson said.

“It’s been a work in progress for a while, but we have recently been able to have a few meetings with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,” she said. “We’re creating a working group going forward to look at some of the pieces of what domestic sugar policy could look like.”

Sugar shortage

Canadian sugar has featured in the news recently due to the ongoing strike at a Vancouver sugar processing facility that created a sugar shortage on store shelves.

Although a national sugar policy wouldn’t affect the chances of similar strike action, the expected industry growth could create more supply chain options in the event of disruption, proponents say.

“With the strike right now, the biggest factor is they’re just not operating, not that their source of sugar is not there,” said Crowson. “So as far as domestic sugar policy, it would secure that Canada has a more sustainable product right here that’s 100 per cent Canadian.”

The sugar beets under irrigation in southern Alberta and processed at the Lantic plant in Taber, Alta., represent almost the entirety of sugar production in Canada, said Crowson.

Rogers Sugar is the holding company of Lantic Inc., formed when Rogers Sugar Ltd. and Lantic Sugar Limited merged in 2008.

“There are beets that are grown in Ontario, but they’re exported to Michigan to be processed, so that doesn’t stay within Canada,” says Crowson. “So, we are the only source of 100 per cent Canadian sugar in Canada.”

Alberta’s sugar beet production comprises about 200 farm families who harvest about 840,000 tonnes of sugar beets every year.
There are three other sugar refineries under the company’s banner (Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto) but they process cane sugar sourced from India, Brazil and Vietnam.

Today, the Canadian sugar beet industry operates under a supply managed, quota-based system, said Crowson.

The ASBG manages these producer quotas from its permanent quota of 28,000-33,895 acres per year, depending on capacity of the Taber refinery. Contracted acreage can be reduced if the refinery is unable to process the permanent quota in a given year.

“The processor tells us how much we can grow each year and usually what happens is we end up with a 17 to 20 per cent reduction from our permanent quota,” she said.

“What that means, going into next year’s system, is out of that 33,895 acres, we’re going to have a 17 per cent reduction. That will be the maximum amount of acres our growers are able to grow.”

Any beets that don’t make it to the plant become a storage challenge for producers, she added. They have no other marketing options.

“The beets are stored in piles outside so as winter carries on, the beets do get frozen. That’s OK, but they can only stay frozen and still be a good product for so long. So come the end of February or beginning of March … those beets will start to deteriorate.”

In addition, it’s not uncommon in southern Alberta to get sudden stretches of warm weather that hasten beet deterioration. The latest harvest in November brought in 856,636 tonnes at an extractable sugar rate of just over 17 per cent.

Yield was high, considering that the number of planted acres was down. Due to weather and the lateness of the processor contract, producers grew 26,000 acres as opposed to the typical 28,000, Crowson noted.

— Jeff Melchior reports for Alberta Farmer Express from Edmonton.

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Wet conditions extended planting in Ontario, said Rob McKerrall, chair of the Ontario Sugarbeet Growers’ Association (OSGA).

“There was probably a third of the crop went in fairly early. It looks to be on track for a good crop year,” he said.

Most of this year’s crop was planted during the second half of May, with about 15 per cent having been sown during the first half of June, he said.

“We’ll keep our fingers crossed for it,” McKerrall said of the beets planted in June.

Unlike southern Ontario, Alberta has dealt with dry conditions throughout most of this year, but the province’s sugar beet growers were able to irrigate their crops, said Arnie Bergen-Henegouwen, president of the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers (ASBG).

“A couple of the irrigation districts restricted their water allocations,” he said, noting most of those restrictions have since been lifted.

“The crop is progressing well,” he said.

The Alberta sugar beet industry is centered in the Taber area, where Redpath Sugar operates a processing plant.

The ASBG president said farmers are paid according to the quality of their beets they deliver to the plant. Expectations for this year are for an average quality, which he said should fetch $50-$52 per tonne.

Ontario growers’ beets are purchased by the Michigan Sugar Co-operative in the U.S. McKerrall said farmers are expecting at least US$46 (C$60) per tonne, perhaps up to US$50.

Statistics Canada projected 37,400 acres of sugar beets to be planted this year, down from last year’s 46,600 but still among the most acres planted in recent years. Production-wise, the 2018 crop was the largest on record, at nearly 1.38 million tonnes.

The agency’s projection for Ontario was for 12,800 acres to have been planted, but McKerrall said some OSGA members weren’t able to get their entire crop in as the insurance deadline passed — something that never happened before, he said

Farmers should have around 9,500 to 10,000 acres planted, he added.

Farmers in Ontario grew sugar beets before official record-keeping began in 1908 and continued through to 1967. The industry resumed in the late 1990s as Michigan Sugar sought to source more beets.

Alberta was also predicted to have fewer acres this year at 24,600, down 4,000 from 2018, according to Statistics Canada. However, that’s still very much in line with the acres farmers planted over the last number of years.

Quebec grew sugar beets from 1944 to 1985 and Manitoba from 1940 to 1996. No other province has grown enough sugar beets to have been recorded by Statistics Canada.

— Glen Hallick writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.

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Consumers have been pushing for years for greater transparency over what is in their food, fighting pushback from farmers who fear the labeling would curb demand for genetically engineered ingredients and food companies which said the label changes would be costly and confusing.

The long-awaited details released on Thursday by USDA came more than two years after lawmakers agreed on the requirements. The agency has been reviewing feedback from farmers, food companies and consumers who filed comments earlier this year.

“This ensures clear information and labeling consistency for consumers about the ingredients in their food,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. “The standard also avoids a patchwork state-by-state system that could be confusing to consumers.”

GMO crops have had their genes altered using biotechnology.

The new requirements will provide some consistency and a clear plan for food companies that now need to overhaul their labels.

But consumer groups criticized USDA for saying companies need to use the term “bioengineered” rather than the more commonly used terms “genetically engineered” or “GMO.”

“The USDA has betrayed the public trust by denying Americans the right to know how their food is produced,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director at the Center for Food Safety.

USDA also excluded some highly processed ingredients such as sugar from beet and soyoil from mandatory labeling. That is a win for farmers of some crops, including sugar beet, who feared being labeled as GMO would reduce consumer demand for their products.

“We believe that it allows transparency for consumers while following the intent of Congress that only food that contains modified genetic material be required to be labeled bioengineered under the law, with food companies having the option of providing additional information if they choose,” said Davie Stephens, a soybean grower from Kentucky and president of the American Soybean Association.

— Reporting for Reuters by Chris Prentice.

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Swiss ag chemical and seed firm Syngenta announced Thursday it will sell its sugar beet seed business to Danish forage and turf seed producer DLF Seeds for an undisclosed sum.

“Sugar beet seeds is a natural extension of our seeds business and it is an interesting high-value crop,” DLF Seeds CEO Truels Damsgaard said in a release.

“We see significant synergies within our technology and plant breeding tools benefiting both the sugar beet business and the forage and turf seed business.”

DLF “has a strong record in specialized seeds and in the integration of strategic acquisitions and offers excellent prospects for the sugar beet seeds business, enabling it to build on its expertise in serving industrial sugar producers,” Jeff Rowe, Syngenta’s president for global seeeds and North America, said in the same release.

The deal, pending “customary approval requirements,” is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of this year, the companies said.

DLF, owned mostly by a Danish seed growers’ co-operative, operates in Canada as DLF Pickseed, formed in 2013 when DLF bought Ontario-based forage seed firm Pickseed. — AGCanada.com Network

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The sale comes as AmCane is embroiled in litigation in the Court of International Trade over a 2014 trade deal signed by the U.S. and Mexico, which sets prices and a quota for the sweetener.

Cane refiners including Louis Dreyfus Commodities’ Imperial Sugar have said the trade deal threatens their supplies of raw sugar as well as their margins. On Feb. 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was mulling options as concerns mount over raw supplies.

AmCane CEO David Rosenzweig declined to comment on the reason for the sale or terms of the deal. He will be staying on for two years at Michigan Sugar during the transition, he told Reuters at the International Sweetener Colloquium in Miami.

For Michigan Sugar, the country’s third-largest beet sugar producer, the acquisition of AmCane’s refinery in Taylor, Michigan, and packaging facility in Toledo, Ohio, marks an expansion into specialty cane sugar products at a time when beet farmers are facing heightened scrutiny over ingredients made of genetically modified crops.

The co-operative sources beets from over 1,000 farmers in Michigan and southwestern Ontario and operates a piling station at Dover Centre, about 90 km northeast of Windsor.

The acquisition is expected to boost Michigan Sugar’s sales volumes by nearly 15 per cent and lift revenue by more than US$60 million, the statement said.

“Adding cane sugar products to our product lineup will allow us to better serve our customers while maintaining a keen focus on value-enhanced products,” Mark Flegenheimer, CEO of Michigan Sugar, said in the company statement.

AmCane makes liquid sugar and other products including evaporated cane juice.

— Chris Prentice reports on soft commodities and biofuels for Reuters, based in New York.

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