The ability to market on a longer-term basis has been created by NFU Sugar, British Sugar, and the agri-commodity and supply chain experts CZ (Czarnikow).
For the past five years, beet growers have had the option to contract and price some of their beet on a ‘one year’ contract indexed to world sugar prices.
The aspiration has always been to offer a contract where growers can transparently view and sell against a forward market price for sugar beet, just as they do for wheat and other major crops.
“While world prices are low now, the market is highly volatile, and this scheme will allow growers to lock in prices if market conditions become attractive.”
NFU Sugar Board Chair Kit Papworth
The existing one-year contract allows growers to do this but is limited to pricing beet one year ahead and requires a grower to contract tonnage well before being able to lock in a price. The idea of the forward index-linked contract is to give growers the opportunity to price their beet further into the future.
NFU Sugar Board Chair Kit Papworth said: “Farmers are used to being able to forward sell other commodities and this pilot allows growers to do the same for sugar beet. While world prices are low now, the market is highly volatile, and this scheme will allow growers to lock in prices if market conditions become attractive.”
‘Greater choice’
Dan Green, Agriculture Director, British Sugar, said: “We’re pleased to launch this pilot contract option. It gives greater choice and flexibility to those growers wishing to price some of their tonnage further ahead.”
Andrew Charlton, Head of Europe, Czarnikow, said: “This continued innovation provides UK sugar beet growers more choice and greater forward price visibility, and we are delighted to broaden our offering to farmers through the Cz App in collaboration with the NFU and British Sugar.”
How will it work?
Pricing beet forward will work in a similar way to any other crop – growers will be able to see a forward price, but, unlike the current one-year index-linked contract, a grower only commits to sell at the point they want to price the beet. If the price is unattractive, there is no compulsion for growers to contract.
Growers will be able to see prices on the CZ app platform. The pilot scheme, which is set to be launched on 2 March 2026, will give the grower base the opportunity to sell a total of 50,000 tonnes of beet drilled in spring 2027 against the October 2027 No.11 contract and December 2027 $/£ exchange market.
It is envisaged that further tranches will be made available in due course.
How do I take part?
Interested growers must pre-register for the pilot scheme. Doing so will give you visibility of the index-linked beet price for 2027 on the CZ app trading platform and allow you to price quickly if you wish. By pre-registering, growers are not contracting or committing to make beet sales.
All growers who have signed up to an index-linked contract in the past will be pre-registered automatically.
If you have not previously been on an index-linked contract and would like to pre-register for the pilot scheme, please contact the British Sugar Services team on freephone 0800 090 2376 or email [email protected].
For more information on the forward index-linked contract, read our explainer.
You can also read our ‘your questions answered’ page for further detail on how it will work.
