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MOORHEAD -- New payment limitation clarifications for the sugar
PIK (payment-in-kind) program prevent some growers from enrolling,
but American Crystal Sugar Co. officials still predict a healthy
sign-up.
The co-op had 1,100 contract offers in hand Wednesday afternoon,
said David Berg, vice president for administration. He estimated
that number covered more than 24,000 acres of sugar beets as of
Wednesday afternoon.
"I think it's a safe bet the bulk of that is going to be
accepted," Berg said of the current bids.
The company is still estimating that between 1,250 and 1,500
offers will ultimately come in, and that up to 30,000 acres of bids
might be accepted.
Using battle metaphors, Berg said a quick early rush of bid
applications was "like we had landed on a beachhead, with no
resistance," followed by "house-to-house" fighting,
as far as enrolling people was concerned.
Berg said the clarified guidelines on the $20,000 limit for the
payment-in-kind program would prohibit participation by some
shareholder entities.
Clarified rules came out Friday and were put in play by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency on Monday.
"They've chipped away at it -- it's gotten clearer,"
Berg said of the rules. "Some of the questions have gone away;
some have gone away on the negative side. People we'd hoped to get
in, we couldn't get in. They don't qualify under what the USDA/FSA
determines is a person."
Berg couldn't be specific about what kinds of entities wouldn't
qualify, other than to say they involve some joint ventures and
limited partnerships. About 40 percent of shareholders are limited
partnerships, but not all of those are ineligible.
He said farmers involved in gray-area ventures did not sign up.
He guessed that few, if any, would submit bids that would be
rejected because of the form of the business.
Officially, the sign-up for the program began Aug. 21. Crystal
began the sign-up for its members on Aug. 23. The process runs
through Friday.
Berg said the rules might have been written to cover more growers
had there been more time to write them.
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