He writes:
The performance of sugar beet will mean many farmers will be delighted with their return from the crop this year.
And the 2014/15 price of £31.67 per tonne will be a boon for growers as the crop delivers an exceptional harvest. A lot of NFU blood and sweat was put into securing this price and achieving it was no mean feat.
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The latest sugar beet campaign has delivered the largest crop in recent times and, at an estimated 80t / ha, it has provided record yields. With the final loads of beet being hauled onto lorries, indications are that 9.2 million tonnes of beet, which are grown in the east of England, from Yorkshire to Essex, will have been delivered into British Sugar’s factories.
Once processed, 1.44 million tonnes of sugar will have been produced.
How does this compare? This campaign - the period when beet is harvested and processed - is about 10% ahead from the prior year’s healthy crop of 8.4 million beet tonnes and 1.3 million tonnes of sugar. Although sugar content is down slightly this year, it is still respectable at 17.2%.
The weather has been kind to sugar beet through the growing season. A mild spring got the crop off to a good start and, although mid-summer was un-seasonally cool, temperatures above 20C at the start of November provided ideal growing conditions.
The lack of extensive frost contributed to an uninterrupted flow of beet for the British Sugar factories. Operationally, these have performed flawlessly given the additional volumes. The detailed research work and advice on best farming practice provided by the BBRO has without doubt added to yield.
I’m part of an NFU team that is dedicated to working on behalf of growers. Our focus now moves to the changes that will occur when quotas are removed in October 2017 and represents a significant challenge for the industry. We are working to understand how the dynamics of the EU and world sugar market may affect growers here in the UK.
The NFU is also using its wealth of experience to start negotiating the 2016/17 price with British Sugar. In the last negotiation under the current EU sugar regime we are even more determined to secure the best deal for British growers.