AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho—Officials with Amalgamated Sugar say they’re on track for record yields and good sugar content at the start of their early harvest.
“The overall sugar at the South Pleasant Valley receiving station is up quite a bit from last year. Tonnage is up slightly from last year,” said Jim Tiede, an American Falls farmer.
Magic Valley beet growers started digging on Sept. 7, with Eastern Idaho growers commencing the following day, and growers should continue harvesting through Nov. 1. Operations commenced Sept. 10 at the Twin Falls and Paul factories, and processing of a large crop should continue for the next 10 months, said Amalgamated President and CEO John McCreedy.
“Our indication at this point is we have a very, very high tonnage,” McCreedy said. “We could have a record crop in terms of size and total amount of sugar produced.”
McCreedy said he’s cautiously optimistic about sugar levels.
“If the trend stays consistent, what we would anticipate seeing is better sugar content than we’ve seen in the past couple of years,” McCreedy said.
According to a Sept. 1 forecast by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Idaho should produce 6.3 million tons of sugar, with yields expected to average 37.6 tons per acre, up 0.1 tons. In Amalgamated’s Oregon territory, beet production is forecast at 495,000 tons, with yields expected to rise 12 percent to 39 tons per acre.
Rupert, Idaho, farmer Duane Grant, chairman of Snake River Sugar Co., said some of his beets have tested at 16 percent sugar, which is strong for so early in harvest.
“We have expectations for an above-average crop, both in terms of tonnage definitely, and the first sugars coming in also look to be at least average, and perhaps above average,” Grant said.
Grant noted some growers, especially near Glenns Ferry, were hard hit by the fungal disease Aphanomyces.
Based on strong production, McCreedy anticipates Amalgamated growers will enjoy above-average beet returns. Sugar prices, however, have been trending downward since early 2015 and have dropped about 6 cents per pound of finished sugar to 33 cents per pound.
Jack Roney, an economist with the American Sugar Alliance, explained sugar prices plummeted during 2013 due to the flooding of Mexican sugar on the U.S. market. Prices recovered in 2014 when the U.S. government imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Mexican sugar, and the U.S. and Mexican governments reached an agreement by the end of the year allowing duty-free Mexican sugar imports to resume, with volumes limited to demands of the U.S. market.
Roney believes price declines are “a reflection of the certainty that has been returned to the market” following the suspension of the duties.
Roney said the U.S. beet crop appears to be strong this season. Furthermore, he said, Australia requested greater access to sell sugar into the American market during Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation. U.S. negotiators have assured sugar producers they may make minor concessions to Australia but won’t undermine the nation’s sugar policy, Roney said.
Source: www.capitalpress.com