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The Red River Valley's sugar beet growers began harvest
Wednesday, knowing that some of this year's crop will never leave
the ground.
Many of the region's sugar beet growers who are harvesting their
crop also have signed up for a federal payment-in-kind program that
will pay them to destroy part of it.
But bids awarded through the payment-in-kind (PIK) program should
be announced by Sept. 15, giving growers ample time to set aside
beet acres to be plowed under, said David Berg, American Crystal
Sugar's vice president of administration.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the PIK program Aug.
1 - well into the growing season.
To get the PIK program in place before harvest is well under way,
the USDA and sugar processors have had to "iron out bugs on the
fly," Berg said.
And not all of the bugs have been worked out yet, he said.
The USDA has not yet decided who qualifies for the program which
limits "per person" payments to $20,000, the equivalent of
about 20 acres of sugar beets.
American Crystal's sugar beet growers have submitted 1,050
contracts for the program. Growers have until Friday to file, Berg
said.
The program will eliminate about 30,000 acres of sugar beets
grown for American Crystal, Berg said.
Company officials initially estimated the program would eliminate
between 40,000 and 50,000 sugar beet acres.
Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative hopes to eliminate 10,000 acres
through the PIK program, said Patricia Keough-Wilson, director of
communications.
Wilson said she did not know how many of the cooperative's
shareholders had signed up for the program.
The government approved the PIK program to pay sugar beet and
cane growers for their production and yet reduce an oversupply of
the sweetener that has sent its per-pound price to an 18-year low.
The government also hopes the PIK program will initiate a sugar
price increase to alleviate the threat of processors forfeiting on
government loans in which sugar was used as collateral.
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