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Idaho producers cut $19.5 million
from PIK pie
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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." |
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