| Mid-Michigan sugar beet farmers have received another payment for the
2000 crop and more money may come.
Michigan Sugar Beet Growers Inc., a cooperative formed to buy Michigan
Sugar Co. from Texas-based Imperial Sugar Co., paid $2.50 a ton.
Meanwhile, the cooperative and growers are awaiting action on a final
payment promise from Imperial.
Sugar companies usually pay growers in three installments after a fall
harvest -- in December, April and October -- once they have figured final
profits.
Farmers contracted their 2000 crop with Imperial, and Imperial gave
them their first checks around Dec. 15, but when Imperial filed Chapter 11
bankruptcy, court proceedings stalled the April checks.
Michigan Sugar Beet Growers promised farmers a spring payment of $5 per
ton for April, but the cooperative could not secure the funding until the
first week of October, so Imperial paid $2.50 a ton in May as half of an
April payment.
Imperial, which is now out of bankruptcy, has sent growers a letter
saying it will pay claimants in full for the 2000 crop.
Richard Leach Jr., executive vice president for the Saginaw
Township-based Great Lakes Sugar Beet Growers Association, which formed
the cooperative, said the company's letter is hard to decipher.
"We don't know what 'claimants in full' means," Leach said.
Claimants are nationwide, he said, and include cane growers. Imperial
owes some of the largest claimants, none in Michigan, more than $1
million.
In a letter to members of the cooperative, Board of Directors members
said they are continuing to work with Imperial to close on the deal to buy
Michigan Sugar around the end of the year.
The cooperative had until Oct. 1 to complete the transaction with
Imperial, but when it was unable to do so, it began leasing the Michigan
Sugar operations.
The lease calls for the growers group to pay Imperial $4 per ton for
beets delivered to Michigan Sugar plants.
Leach said the cooperative may buy the factories from Imperial until
Feb. 28. After that, the deal is dead.
Leach said delays have resulted because of the need to obtain
bankruptcy court approval for some steps.
"Most of the issues have been worked out," he said. "If
growers out there are having a problem getting financed, we will help
them. We have a pool of $2.5 million. We can work with them, and we're
willing to sign them up." |