SARNIA, Ont.—Ontario farmers will need to quadruple the province’s sugarbeet acreage if plans for a new processing plant at Sarnia move forward.
The chair of the Ontario Sugarbeet Growers’ Association said the newly formed Ontario Sugarbeet Processors’ Cooperative will require new growers as well as expansion from existing growers.
“We’re looking to grow another 30,000 acres on top of the 10,000 acres we already grow in Ontario for the Michigan Sugar Co.,” Mark Lumley said.
“As the bio-economy moves forward, we’re going to be the forefront of that.…We want to be slicing beets by 2020.”
Lumley said farmers will be asked to join the new co-operative in about a year. It will require that they commit acres of beets and investment for the venture.
Sugarbeet growers close to Sarnia, in Lambton County and Chatham-Kent, have been described as innovative producers, but Lumley said the current production area in Ontario will need to be expanded to include additional growers in Huron and Middlesex counties and other locations within 150 kilo-metres of Sarnia.
Source: www.producer.com