“Seed was then approved to be imported into Canada, and a mad rush began to organize the distribution. Amazingly, this was all done in less than a week, and seed distribution began on May 14. Most of the general area planting began on the same day,” said Darren Klemen, who was officially anointed the new president of ASBG at the annual general meeting on March 4.

“Growers kept their planters running for long hours to get the crop in quick, as the contract negotiation created a long delay in normal planting.”

Nevertheless, producers were able to get 22,968 acres planted into the ground within a handful of days of seed distribution. The late planting did provide a blessing in disguise with great stands.

June saw some timely rains, but with it also came some cooler days stretching a month-and-a-half that the region had not experienced in recent years, causing fears of a below-average beet harvest. But after an on-time harvest that began on Sept. 29, all the piling grounds finished reporting on Oct. 27 with 726,997 tonnes delivered.

Sugar content was 18.89 per cent with 17.32 extractable sugar and a 4.86 per cent tare. It beat the five-year average of 18.46 per cent sugar content. It brought the average yield to 31.68 tonnes per acre, as Stiekema Kolhorn Farms was deemed 2025’s top grower at 37.52 adjusted tonnes per acre.

Very few beets were lost to hail, wind or insects. Also, August came in on a heater for a long stretch of warm, dry weather propping up the crop with irrigation systems making up for lost time. September brought more of the same, with many days over 30 degrees Celsius with requisite irrigation in tow, making its way into harvest October as well.

“I guess that would be considered a pretty good crop. That’s more September irrigating than I’ve observed in a long time,” said Klemen.

Glyphosate-resistant kochia and volunteer canola continued to be a problem in the sugar beet growing areas.

Lantic Inc. field stag monitored fields with small cases of disease and pests which included aphanomyces and root rot. But the southern Alberta area got off relatively well disease-wise compared to their American counterparts.

“Our disease concerns are now very minor compared to our neighbors to the south. Nearly all their areas (were) devastated by cercospora,” said Klemen.

As the ASBG celebrated its 100th harvest as an organization, growers at its AGM got to enjoy a video showcasing its century history. Watch here.

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In her travels, Gwen Young, chair of the Canadian Sugar Beet Producers Association (CSBPA), has heard the desire of Ontario wanting to expand its sugar beet acres, along with Manitoba and Saskatchewan putting an extra value-added crop into their rotation.

But first, increased demand has to be established through procurement.

WHY IT MATTERS: Domestic sugar policy is needed to encourage production of the nation’s only 100 per cent Canadian sugar with sugar beets.

At the recent Canadian Federation of Agriculture AGM, the CSBPA put forth a resolution that the CFA work with government to encourage procurement.

“We have asked the government to look at using 100 per cent Canadian, whatever it is. In our case, it’s sugar. In government facilities — so hospitals, education, government offices, with the military, all of the things that government owns and operates,” said Young at the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers AGM in Lethbridge, Alta., with a sugar beet working group that has been working behind the scenes to draft a report with numerous stakeholders.

“That is our hope, that it would create a market. If we can create a market that then gives a sale to a processor, we can provide the beets here or across the country. There is interest in other spots in the country that are interested in providing beets.”

Other market infiltrations included upcoming CUSMA negotiations with the U.S. and Mexico. The only sugar going into the United States that is tariff-free is sugar beet sugar. That does not apply to sugar-containing products. The CSBPA hopes the agreement says any sugar containing products going into the U.S. must contain sugar beet sugar, which would widen markets and increase processing.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has has been on a whirlwind tour trying to broker free trade deals internationally as tensions continue with the U.S. But Young hopes it is not sugar beets that are sacrificed on the altar of concessions with Thailand, India, UAE and Mercosur (Southern Common Market/Brazil). UAE is an anomaly in that it has one of the largest sugar beet processing plants in the world, and yet does not grow it. All the sugar they process comes in from the aforementioned nations.

• RELATED: Sugar beet harvest underway in southern Alberta

“That gives Brazil, India, Thailand an FTA (free trade agreement) into our market and we don’t want that,” said Young, adding India is the world’s second largest producer and third largest exporter of sugar.

Brazil is the leading supplier of raw sugar to Canada. Even with refined sugar, $2 million came into Canada in 2024, seeing a massive increase to $11 million tariff-free a year later, according to Young. With lagging oil prices pre-Iran war, Brazil has shifted from ethanol production for its sugar cane, to sugar.

“Now they have an abundance of sugar, and they just need to get rid of it. When you’re seeing the No. 11 price drop, some of that is tied directly to Brazil flooding the market with sugar,” said Young.

“So when we’re speaking with government officials about Mercosur, which includes Brazil, we’re asking them in a free trade agreement, fill your boots. Just don’t add sugar into it. We do not want to be part of a free trade agreement with Brazil that is detrimental to us as the only source of 100 per cent Canadian sugar.”

• READ MORE: Alberta’s beets a sweet domestic segment in Canada’s sugar supply

As Canada continues to forge its national identity in trade deals, the 200-plus growers in southern Alberta are the only ones who produce the only source of 100 per cent Canadian sugar. That represents approximately eight to 10 per cent of the nation’s overall consumption, and is processed at the sugar beet refinery in Taber. The other 90 per cent of sugar is produced from raw cane imported from Central/South America and refined in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

The ASBG voiced its frustrations on some of the red tape and bureaucracy found in the many different levels of the negotiating process trying to bring sugar beets to the forefront, and its potential for expansion in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to encourage more local processing.

“I think government policy is one of the biggest opportunities we have, and one of the biggest risks that we face in agriculture today. I think we made some progress, but it’s very difficult. One of the obstacles we encountered is it turns out that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is very conservative, even risk averse in recommendations that they might want to make,” said Cory Vanden Elzen, who sits on the board of directors and agriculture policy committee for Alberta Sugar Beet Growers.

Sifting through all the different advocacy organizations and levels of provincial and federal government, Young mentioned upcoming meetings with the chief negotiators of Mercosur and India, as it gets its report finalized with the sugar beet working committee.

“All of the ministries like to stay in their lane, and they don’t like to venture out of it to look at anybody else’s problem child, which is kind of what we are. The ag ministry wants to stay in their lane. This would then have to go to trade. From there, we’ll go to finance,” said Young.

“This year, something that was iterated over and over and over and over again (federally) was ‘grow Canada.’ Agriculture is ready to grow today. Ag is ready, and ag is poised, and we can create a lot of great increase in the economy.”

Fast Facts: The push for a Canadian domestic sugar policy

• Canadian: Sugar beets are the only source of 100 per cent grown-and-refined sugar in Canada.
• Eight per cent to 10 per cent: The current share of Canadian sugar consumption met by domestic beet production; the rest is imported raw cane.
• Three new provinces: Farmers in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are ready to expand sugar beet acres if a domestic policy is set.
• Target: government procurement: Growers are calling for 100 per cent Canadian sugar in all hospitals, military bases and federal offices.
• The ‘Brazil factor’: Brazil recently shifted production from ethanol back to sugar, leading to a surge in cheap exports that threatens local price stability.
• Trade risk: Negotiations with India, UAE, and Mercosur pose a major risk of “dumping” foreign sugar into the Canadian market tariff-free.

Sources: Gwen Young, chair, Canadian Sugar Beet Producers Association; Alberta Sugar Beet Growers AGM (Lethbridge, Alta.)

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The ASBG represents 200 farm families in southern Alberta who manage 33,895 acres of quota under a recently signed five-year contract with Lantic Sugar, which includes an opt-out clause after three years. Growers farm near Vauxhall, Taber, Bow Island, Burdett, Tempest, Enchant and Hays.

“Under the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act, we are a marketing board,” executive director Jennifer Crowson told the 24 people on a bus as it made its way to a sugar-beet field operated by Gary Tokariuk.

“We do get the impression at times that we’re supply managed. However, we’re more production managed because we have one sole processor, and they get to tell us how many acres they’d like to process a year.”

The new contract guarantees that a minimum of 22,500 acres will be processed.

Beets are usually planted by late April, but marathon-length negotiations this year resulted in an agreement signed May 8. As a result, the crop wasn’t planted until May 14, creating uncertainty as to how harvest might unfold.

Last year, yields averaged at 32 tonnes an acre in a growing season that saw a wet spring and was cool overall.

“One thing with sugar beets is they really love the heat in the summer and irrigation,” Crowson said.

“They need about 20 inches of irrigation a year to be a successful crop. And then they also need the heat at the right time.”

Early estimates are for yields that will be similar to last year.

The crop can experience wild swings in temperatures.

“It’s crazy how temperature can change ” Crowson said.

“I live northeast of Vauxhall (10,000 acres of sugar beets grown), and I can drive to Taber in the morning, and it can be almost 10 degrees difference from my house to the office. It’s quite interesting. I think the big factor with that is probably the rivers that are to the north.”

The beets belong to Lantic once they are dug and in the company’s possession.

Farmers take the risk while the sugar beets are in the piles waiting for pickup, and so they share loading equipment to speed up the process in the race against frost in October.

Growers are paid for sugar content, and they shoot for 17.3 per cent extractable sugar. Crowson said they look to be on track for 2025.

The ASBG honours the top 10 producers every year for yield and sugar content across the seven growing areas.

Sugar beets are roughly 20 per cent sugar, with the rest being water and pulp/fibre.

Waste is minimized. When they are dug, the beets are topped and the leaves go back into the soil. When they go to the factory in Taber, they are washed, sliced and boiled, resulting in byproducts with sugar molasses and beet pulp.

“They will sell some of the wet beet pulp to some of the local producers for animal feed,” Crowson said.

“They also dehydrate it, dry it and then sell it for animal feed as well.The molasses that comes from sugar beats is usually used in animal feed because it’s quite tart. Some distilleries will use it in production as well, but it’s not usually your your table version, like baking ginger snaps or something like that.”

Much like high-value potato growers, sugar beet farmers benefit from southern Alberta’s intricate canal and irrigation systems that provide moisture when Mother Nature is not co-operating.

“We live among all this irrigation and so we kind of take it for granted, but 70 per cent of Canada’s irrigation is located here in southern Alberta,” said Crowson.

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Groups including the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers have long decried Canada’s reliance on imported cane sugar rather than Canadian-grown sugar beets. Alberta’s crop makes up about eight per cent of the sugar consumed in the country, the group says, and a national sugar policy could increase sugar beet market share to 16 per cent.

“A sugar policy would protect the sugar beet market and the ability for us to expand the industry,” executive director Jennifer Crowson said during the shortage, adding that such a policy would make the sugar supply chain more resilient.

More emphasis on sugar beets would give the value chain more options for homegrown sourcing, the group has argued, making it less vulnerable to disruption.

Today, the strike is over and the sugar shortage is resolved. Now Canada’s largest sugar processing plant is in the works, built by Sucro Can and set to open in 2025 in Hamilton, Ont.

However, the project won’t bolster beet growers’ quest for greater market share. The new facility will refine sugar cane imported from Central and South America and has no plans for Canadian sugar beets.

Sucro Can chair Don Hill said the facility will play a vital role in the broader Canadian food system.

“The food industry’s very interconnected,” said Hill. “There may not be a huge connection (between) what we do and what Ontario growers do, but it all comes down to, you know, trying to create the strongest, most vibrant integrated food manufacturing possible.”

The company chose Hamilton because southern Ontario is “the epicentre of Canadian food manufacturing, and so all of our major customers are within a relatively short driving distance to their plants.

“It also gives us the advantage of, if we want to export sugar to the U.S., we’re obviously right at the doorstep,” said Hill.

The U.S. is the major destination for Ontario-grown sugar beets. Alberta production is processed at the Rogers Sugar facility in Taber, Alta. That plant is the company’s only beet processing facility. It contracts with about 400 growers every year and produces about 150,000 tonnes of sugar.

In Manitoba, interest in the sugar market is a vestige of the province’s own sugar beet sector. The crop disappeared from fields in the late 1990s after closure of a Rogers plant in Winnipeg in 1997.

The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers say a national strategy would allow industry expansion that could include production in Manitoba.

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

The sector has contacted Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and a working group hopes to help outline a national policy, she added.

Competition

In a Jan. 16 press release, Sucro Founder and CEO Jonathan Taylor attributed the new refinery to continued success of the sugar sector.

“The sugar markets in both Canada and the United States are experiencing steady, long term, sustainable growth, and Sucro is investing to supply these growing market demands,” he said.

Hill said competition in the sugar sector has “come up short” on supply in recent years.

“For a lot of food products, you have to have sugar supply. If you don’t have confidence that you’re going to have enough supply going forward, it’s going to make your own expansion plans very, very difficult.”

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“This tentative agreement is subject to a ratification vote that will be held next week,” Rogers Sugar Inc. said in a statement today.

The workers walked off the job on Sept. 28 after, “the Company was proposing a Collective Agreement, with items that were brought up by the membership, as non-starters,” said union Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 8, which represents the workers, in a Sept. 29 news release.

The statement from Rogers contained no details as to what the tentative agreement contained.

In September, the union said it would not entertain “continuous shifting” and running the refinery 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A Sept. 25 news release said the union was also seeking increases in benefits and protection from inflation and rising costs of living among other demands.

The strike, which sparked sugar shortages for businesses like bakeries western Canadian grocery stores, led the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers to call for a national domestic sugar policy to shift focus to home-grown sugar beet production.

The group said its growers produce only eight per cent of the sugar sold in Canada, while the remainder is imported cane sugar. The 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.

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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.

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The bees are now tucked away for the winter, but August and September are prime feeding seasons when beekeepers condition their colonies for winter and natural nectar sources are drying up.

“We’ve always taken for granted that the sugar’s always been there,” said Ian Steppler, chair of the Manitoba Beekeepers’ Association. “The entire time I’ve been beekeeping, I’ve never thought twice about sugar availability, other than just the price going up a little bit because of supply and demand.”

“There’s not an issue right now,” said Connie Phillips, executive director of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. “I think the concern is, if the shortage persists, that it will be a big issue in the spring when we start feeding again.”

Anyone hoping to start December with a batch of holiday cookies likely had to reach for a different sweetener.

Sugar was at a premium in grocery stores across Western Canada in late November, leading retailers to place per-customer limits on remaining stock.

A big part of the problem was an ongoing strike at a sugar refinery in Vancouver owned by Rogers Sugar, the holding company for Lantic Inc. The facility is the second largest of the three refineries operated by the company, which is Canada’s biggest sugar supplier, and the only major cane sugar refinery in Western Canada.

Workers at the Vancouver plant have been on strike since late September.

Western Canada’s honey sector largely depends on the same company for feed sucrose, although those products largely come from the company’s beet sugar plant in Taber, Alta.

Sugar feeding

Spring and fall are the main feeding seasons, when nectar sources are thin on the ground. There is some nectar available in the spring, Steppler said, and bees would “probably be able to get by” if producers couldn’t feed.

Then the season enters honey flow. During that time, beekeepers harvest what, naturally, would be winter feed in the hive. Not only does this add volume to their harvest, Steppler noted, but canola honey — the bread and butter of beekeeping operations in Western Canada — makes poor winter feed for the bees.

Instead, the honey goes into beekeepers’ tanks and the brood is fed high-quality sugar to build up winter stores.

Few options

Both Manitoba and Alberta groups say the strike and subsequent supply chain shortages have highlighted a vulnerability in their industry.

“We need more than just one supplier of sugar. We need a backup,” Steppler said, adding that he plans to raise the issue with the national producer organization.

He questioned why relationships are not in place to potentially bring sugar from North Dakota, where there is an established sugar beet industry. In Manitoba, that would be closer than bringing it from Alberta.

But Phillips notes Alberta is the heart of Canada’s sugar beet industry, and that hasn’t helped their beekeepers develop alternatives.

“Manitoba’s right,” she said. “We need to be a little bit more certain about supply.”

Sugar beets had a good year in Alberta, she said, but that’s naturally limited by processing capacity.

Phillips also noted the sugar beet industry in Alberta has been pushing for a national sugar policy for years.

Alberta Sugar Beet Growers indicate that only eight to 10 per cent of Canadian sugar comes from their farms. Most is drawn from imported cane sugar. The group has argued for a policy that would “prioritize the production of beet sugar,” according to its website.

That would be good news for the honey sector, which prefers beet sugar to cane sugar.

Supply from the U.S. might have its own issues.

A few years ago, Alberta did run short of apiary sugar supplies, Phillips said. Several producers tried to source from the U.S., but ran into issues when bringing supplies across the border.

“The distributor agreed to sell the sugar, but then the sugar supplier to the distributor refused,” she said.

Guy Chartier, CEO of Bee Maid honey, agreed that supply might be a concern if the shortage happened in spring and fall, but the strike is at a cane sugar plant in Vancouver where most beekeepers don’t source product.

Problems would arise if Canada’s sugar supply was so disrupted that supplies from Taber were used up.

“Who knows,” he said. “If this strike keeps going for more months… until spring, could that become an issue? I’m not sure.”

Corn syrup

Without sugar, Manitoba beekeepers might turn to cheaper high-fructose corn syrup, but that comes with animal health issues.

Corn syrup degrades quicker than sucrose, Steppler noted. That’s a problem in a Prairie winter, when bees might be confined for five months or more. The less-pure sugar source also leads to more waste, which is hard on the bees’ digestive system.

“Beekeepers do find issues with dysentery when they feed corn syrup,” he said.

That’s sometimes less of an issue in spring, when the bees can fly and defecate outside, he noted. But in fall, lack of sucrose could be disastrous.

On the production side, Phillips said corn syrup can add characteristics that make honey test as adulterated.

Alberta doesn’t use corn syrup but that is more common in the east, she added.

Looking ahead

As of print deadline, the future of the sugar market was unclear. Even if supply does increase, getting sugar back on the grocery shelves is different from obtaining supply for bees.

However, there may be a silver lining. There are lots of consumers looking to bake for the holidays and without sugar, they could boost honey sales.

– Alexis Stockford is associate editor for the Manitoba Co-operator.

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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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The West African country has a history of sometimes deadly conflict between local communities and foreign companies that have cleared huge tracts of land for palm oil and sugarcane plantations in recent years.

Locals have complained of environmental damage, losing their livelihoods and not being fairly compensated for their land. Under the current system, landowners get an annual rent of $2.50 per acre, which was determined by the state.

The Customary Land Rights Act and the Land Commission Act, both enacted on Monday, empower local landowners to negotiate the value of their land with investors and prevent it being leased out without their express consent.

Campaigners and locals praised the move, while one palm oil company executive said it would spell the end of investment.

“To our knowledge there is not a legal regime anywhere, in either hemisphere that grants such robust rights to communities facing harm,” said Eleanor Thompson of Namati, an international legal advocacy group.

A director of SOCFIN, the biggest agribusiness company in Sierra Leone, called it a “dream of NGOs.”

“Certainly it will block any investment… It makes things very expensive and we are all prone to enormous blackmail by various communities,” Gerben Haringsma added.

The Luxembourg-based company has invested more than $150 million in palm oil farming in Sierra Leone. It has also frequently clashed with local landowners.

Lands Minister Turad Senessie said the new laws would encourage investment by ensuring peace and order.

“This is a win-win situation for both business and Sierra Leoneans including rural landowners,” he told Reuters.

One of the laws will also end a colonial-era provision that bars descendants of freed slaves from owning land outside the capital, Freetown.

— Reporting for Reuters by Umaru Fofana.

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Container-based transportation has been hit by sky-high costs and delays amid booming shipping demand, while container terminals at ports struggle to deal with the flow.

Commodities such as refined sugar, coffee, rice, cotton and cocoa have moved from dry bulk vessels to containers in the past since the large boxes were more practical and offered good quality control. But now shippers are moving back, at least temporarily.

“Around 80 per cent of the trade on refined sugar was done using containers before the pandemic. This has now fallen to around 60 per cent,” said Paulo Roberto de Souza, CEO of Alvean Sugar, the world’s largest sugar trader.

According to Souza, the change is only not bigger because there are not a lot of small vessels available in the market.

Data from shipping agency Williams regarding port movement in Brazil, the world’s largest sugar exporter, shows that volumes of refined sugar transported using containers fell 48 per cent in June and July (latest data available) compared to the previous year.

Bob Cymbala, owner at food trader A+J Global USA, based in Vancouver, said that some clients are turning down offers due to high prices for container freight, looking for shipping alternatives instead.

One of his clients, a rice exporter in India, is looking to use a dry bulk cargo to ship to Western Africa a volume of rice equivalent to 10 full containers.

Coffee exporters are not considering a change away from containers yet, besides the difficulties, mostly due to concerns over quality. They say containers, with proper lining, better preserve coffee characteristics such as smell and taste.

— Reporting for Reuters by Marcelo Teixeira.

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