Pest and disease pressure
Pest and disease pressure remains the key concern in our sector, and so I welcome the Health and Safety Executive’s decision to grant two vital emergency authorisations this season: a second application of Insyst, to control aphids; and Coragen, to control beet moth.
These emergency authorisations were granted following the submission of applications by NFU Sugar, alongside British Sugar and the BBRO, to combat the urgent threat posed by high aphid and beet moth numbers this year.
Whilst cooler conditions and rainfall through the beginning of June will hopefully have helped supress pest populations, it’s incredibly important that access to these control options has been made available to growers who may urgently need them. I would urge all growers considering using either of these products to visit the BBRO website to familiarise themselves with the conditions of their use and review the latest monitoring and guidance.
“Growers are facing continued inflation in many inputs, and huge uncertainty about what they can grow which won’t lose money.”
NFU Sugar Board Chair Kit Papworth
Crop a mixed picture
With seemingly no such thing as a ‘normal’ season anymore, there is much similarity this year to the situation we found ourselves in in 2025 with beet drilled in reasonable time, but then held back by dry, hot weather during the spring.
This has left establishment variable, though germination in some fields following rain has improved. Plants are at various stages of maturity both within and between fields. Some fields are gappy and at this stage will remain so, meaning a big hit to yield potential.
We believe about 82,000ha has actually been drilled; significantly down on the 95,000ha planted last year. This would be the lowest area since the contract holidays of 2016.
Challenging market conditions persist
And finally, it’s that time of year when NFU Sugar enters into negotiations with British Sugar plc to agree the price and terms of the 2027/28 sugar beet contract.
It’s been a slow start this year for various reasons and market conditions are not conducive to an easy agreement: growers are facing continued inflation in many inputs, and huge uncertainty about what they can grow which won’t lose money; and the processor has silos full of sugar it doesn’t want to sell into a very weak sugar market.
The IPA is clear that if we do not reach an agreement by 1 August, a process of formal arbitration will start and we are already preparing for this, should it come to pass.
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