| FARGO, N.D. -- Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative of
Renville may be ineligible to take out federal loans on the 2001 sugar
beet crop. Reason? The co-op couldn't pay members enough for last year's
frost-bitten crop.
The co-op is perhaps the only company in the nation that failed to
attain its "minimum payment" requirement in the fine print of
the sugar loan program.
Insurance benefits for the 2000 damaged beets also are in legal limbo
and may not count toward the minimum payment, officials say.
The little-known minimum payment rule could mean Southern Minnesota
Beet is unable to benefit from a loan policy that allows processors to
forfeit sugar to the government when sugar prices fall below the loan rate
-- as they did last year.
Southern Minnesota Beet's low payments are the result of a
much-reported harvest time freeze last October.
After the freeze, the beets were allowed to "heal" for a few
days and judged harvestable. But 25 percent of the crop rotted in the
piles, says John Richmond, the co-op's new president and chief executive
officer.
"When you boil it down to the practical matter, at the end of the
day, we're only going to pay our growers about $8 per ton for their 2000
beets," Richmond says. That refers to the average gross payment for
the beets and has not been audited, meaning it could be changed. |