| MOSES LAKE - The power crunch is leaving a sour taste in the
mouths of sugar beet growers.
A $100 million sugar beet processing plant will not operate
this year because of the high costs of natural gas and low
sugar prices, officials said Monday.
Pacific Northwest Sugar Co. will not offer the 50 farmers
in the grower-owned co-op contracts to grow sugar beets this
year, Plant Manager Marvin Price said, adding the company
intends to operate next year.
The company has laid off 30 to 35 workers of its year-round
work force of 100 employees and will not hire the additional
200 employees normally hired during peak processing in the
fall and winter, he said.
Power Buyback Programs
Many Columbia Basin farmers who would have grown sugar
beets this year have opted to take part in water and power
buyback programs offered by the Grant County Public Utility
District and the Bonneville Power Administration, Price says.
Under the programs, farmers can be paid as much as $475 an
acre to not plant crops.
One factor has been the rising cost of natural gas. Prices
have more than quadrupled, Price said. The company uses
natural gas for heat to extract sugar.
Another factor is sugar prices, which have dropped from 24
cents a pound last year to about 20 cents a pound.
As many as 25,000 acres in the mid-Columbia basin have been
planted in sugar beets in previous years. |