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Idaho producers cut $19.5 million from PIK pie

By Lorraine Cavener, The Times-News Online
November 06, 2001
 
PAUL -- By now most Magic Valley growers, who were accepted into the 2001 Sugar Payment in Kind -- or PIK -- program have disked under the few acres they had designated for the program.
      The Idaho Farm Service Agency recently announced that accepted bids came from producers in 17 Idaho counties at a value of almost $19.5 million.
      "Sugar PIK is designed to reduce the supply of government-owned sugar stocks by diverting current production from ever being harvested," said Wayne Hammon, Idaho State FSA executive director. "This excess sugar costs the government a great deal of money each year in storage expenses. In exchange for not producing sugar, Idaho producers will be compensated with stored sugar and, in the process, dramatically reduce the government's expenses."
      Nationwide, the Sugar PIK program will reduce government owned sugar stocks by 200,000 tons. Producers were limited to $20,000 of sugar value.
      In order to participate, producers must have submitted competitive bids.
      U.S. producers submitted 4,655 acceptable offers comprising 106,451 acres to participate in the PIK Program. This would require 236,897 tons of CCC-held sugar as payment.
      Since there was a 200,000 limit, bids were ranked according to benefit to the government. Those ranked 87.9931 percent or less and that met all other eligibility requirements were awarded, starting with the lowest bid and continuing until the 200,000 ton limit was reached.
      A total of 9,300 acres was disked in the Paul factory district, said John Schorr, ag manager for the Amalgamated Sugar Co. Paul district.
      Leonard Kerbs of the Twin Falls district said 2,944 acres were disked in that district.
      The ag managers don't have figures yet on how much sugar that acreage represents. Nor do they know how much money each producer will receive.
      The bid amount has to do with how much they are willing to disk up, Schorr said.
      Kerbs agreed, saying the process of calculating how much money will be received is complicated. To arrive at what growers would receive for the disked acreage top management had to project sugar prices, he said.
      "What will the average price of sugar be?" was the question management had to ask, Kerbs said. "That takes quite a crystal ball."
      After offers from growers were accepted the grower had to show Farm Service Agency officials which acres will be disked, he said. An electronic certificate will be issued to the sugar company by the government for that amount of forfeiture sugar, Kerbs said.
      "Then the sugar company can sell that sugar," he said.
      The sugar company is scheduled to issue checks to growers in December.
      "It is really a win-win situation," Hammon said. "The government saves money and the Idaho agricultural economy gets a multi-million dollar shot in the arm."