The organization wants to see sugar beet production double
The Canadian Sugar Beet Producers (CSBP) wants to see more of its namesake crop grown and processed in Canada.
At one point, sugar beets accounted for more than 20 per cent of the Canadian sugar market share.
But that’s no longer the case, says Gwen Young, an Alberta sugar beet farmer and chair of the CSBP.
“We are now down to about 8 per cent of market share in Canada,” she told Farms.com. “With the declining market share we thought it was a good time to visit the idea of a domestic sugar policy.”
Young and the CSBP have been working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on this file since March 2024.
The proposed policy includes doubling the crop’s share in Canada’s sugar industry from 8 per cent to 16 per cent.
“We believe that’s very doable,” Young said. “And then we’d keep expanding from there.”
Sugar beets are a significant economic crop in Alberta.
The crop helps generate more than $200 million to Alberta’s GDP and employs more than 2,600 people in the province.
Increases in processing capacity is also part of the plan.
Having local processors is an integral part of the crop’s potential success.
The crop doesn’t handle long term storage, and transportation costs between a farmer in one province to a processor in another province would be too high.
“Sugar beets are too big and too bulky,” Young said. “For me to grow them in Alberta and ship them to Saskatchewan would be unrealistic and the costs would make it inefficient.”
Young’s family farm is outside of Taber, Alta.
Her farm is about 20km away from a piling yard, where Lantic Inc., the only sugar beet processing factory in Canada who sets production quota for farmers, picks up the crop for processing.
In Alberta, farmers grow about 28,000 acres annually.
Farmers in Ontario grow about 10,000 acres of sugar beets. But those are trucked to Michigan and processed as U.S. sugar beets.
Processors are interested in opening factories in Canada, Young said.
“We’ve had conversations at a very high level,” she said. “There’s an awareness that we need processing and we’re in the throes of making that happen. Right now Alberta is the most logical place for expansion but it’s by no means the only place.”
A third component of the plan the CSBP and AAFC are working on includes education for farmers.
Sugar beets are a crop that come with little waste but lots of opportunity, Young said.
“There’s lots of alternative uses for the crop,” she said. “De-icer is one, it’s a good feeder stock for ethanol, and it’s good feed for honeybees. We’re not looking at stepping on the sugar market itself but increasing our ability to grow more beets for where they can be utilized.”
CBSP and AAFC are in the final stages of creating their joint report.
Once it’s completed, which Young hopes will happen soon, the organization can present the public document to parties interested in the Canadian sugar beet sector.
“It’ll allow us to open doors outside of AAFC whether it’s Global Affairs or Finance,” she said. “We can also take it to processors and show them what we have and how we can help them be successful.”
The idea of having a domestic sugar beet policy in Canada isn’t new.
In the 1980s, government officials warned of the harm not having one can do to farmers and local rural communities.
In a November 28, 1986 press release from the Manitoba government, then Agriculture Minister Bill Urid told the Canadian Tariff Board local processors would close if no domestic policy was in place.
"Because of the importance of sugar beet production and processing to the provincial economy, the Manitoba government recently recommended to the Canadian Tariff Board that a minimal tariff be imposed on imported sugar," he said. "Producer incomes could be stabilized by paying revenues earned from this import tariff to sugar beet producers through deficiency payments. Such a policy would ensure the continued survival of Canada's sugar industry."
The Manitoba Sugar Company’s refinery closed in 1997.