| SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) - Members of a four-state sugar beet
growers' cooperative are being asked to pay $185 per acre toward a
proposed purchase of Western Sugar Co. Randon Wilson, an attorney for the
Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Cooperative, told the Star-Herald of
Scottsbluff that producers and local bankers will receive the information
before local grower meetings that begin Dec. 13 in Hardin, Mont. Other
meetings will be held in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska.
Members will be asked to submit a $35 per acre subscription payment,
postmarked by the end of January. A full investment of $185 per acre is to
be paid by the end of February.
Rick Dorn, cooperative president, said the Rocky Mountain Grower
Finance Co. has been organized to help finance growers who need to borrow
money for the payments.
The growers' cooperative was formed in July to explore the purchase of
Western Sugar from Tate & Lyle North America Sugars, after the parent
company announced that its sugar processing facilities in Colorado,
Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming were for sale.
A selling price of $78 million was agreed to in October for the sale of
six Western Sugar factories in Billings, Mont., Lovell, Wyo., Greeley and
Fort Morgan, Colo., and Scottsbluff and Bayard.
Grower meetings on the deal will be held in Hardin and Billings, Mont.,
on Dec. 13 and 14, and in Powell, Wyo., Dec. 19.
Colorado and Nebraska growers will meet between Jan. 3 and Jan. 11,
with dates and places to be announced later. |