Southern Alberta farmers who grow sugarbeets rushed to plant their crops May 13 after a four-year agreement with Lantic (Rogers) Sugar was finalized.?
Tense contract negotiations culminated in a formal contract last week that will see 22,000 acres of beets planted this year if time and weather allow it.?
May 14 brought rain to the region, and it is already considered late for sugar beet planting. The crop is usually planted in late April. ?
However, the seeding delay is not expected to affect crop yields and production volumes, so long as weather in the coming growing season co-operates.?
The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers board issued a statement noting a new master agreement had been signed. It said it welcomed stability that a four-year contract will bring to the industry and the region.?
“We appreciate the patience of all those impacted by the delay in putting this contract into place as well as the involvement of the various individuals who were active in the background and whom were either directly or indirectly influential in this outcome,” said the statement.?
Manon Lacroix, Lantic Sugar’s vice-president of finance, said May 13 that the company was happy a deal had been struck.?
“We’re very pleased to have reached a long-term agreement. I think it’s good for the industry, good for Taber and good for Alberta, so we’re quite happy,” she said.?
Lacroix said the number of contracted acres in the years beyond 2015 would be established on a year-by-year basis. She declined to offer further specifics on the agreement.?
“That part is confidential. It’s not something I could disclose,” said Lacroix.?
Beet grower officials were not available to provide details by press time.?
Reached May 14 while in his tractor seeding sugar beets, grower Henk Kamper said he welcomed the deal.?
“We’re very happy that there is a contract, and I think it’s a very good thing for agriculture in southern Alberta that the industry is sticking around.”?
The Kamper family has invested in new sugar beet harvesting and piling equipment in recent years.?
Kamper said his family had seeded 330 acres of sugar beets within 24 hours of contract signing and was working around the clock to finish.?
“We’re using all the resources we have to get (the crop) in right now, but then again, a lot of farms are able to put quite a few acres in a very short time.”?
Kamper said he had no details about the new contract, other than its length.?
“All I’ve heard is that the conditions were similar to some of the earlier proposals that have been publicized.”?
Lantic operates Canada’s only factory for domestic sugar processing. It is located in Taber, Alta., and employs 150 people on a full-time basis, with about double that during harvest.?
Source: www.producer.com