NFU supports beet growers (From Gazette & Herald)

NFU supports beet growers

Councils in North and East Yorkshire are being urged to throw their weight behind the campaign to safeguard the livelihoods of more than 1,600 sugar beet growers in the region.

The National Farmers' Union has written to councillors at North Yorkshire County Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and City of York Council, encouraging them to join the debate surrounding proposed EU reforms.

The proposals, which include a 16 per cent cut in production and significant price cuts, have been developed in response to concerns over the 'dumping' of surplus European sugar on world markets.

The review of the sugar industry has been welcomed cautiously by producers who accept that some change is necessary, but if adopted in their current form, the plans could not only threaten thousands of jobs but could result in the loss of an environmentally valuable crop.

"We are now very much at a turning point and there is still time to influence the Government's response to these proposals," said NFU senior food and farming adviser James Ede.

"Sugar is a valuable crop for the region's rural economy, so it's vital that local authorities call for a more sustainable approach to the reform - one that will not cripple what is considered to be one of the real success stories in British agriculture."

A sugar factory has existed in York since 1926 and it currently produces 150,000 tonnes of sugar every year from more than 1.2 million tonnes of sugar beet grown on more than 15,000 hectares of land across the Yorkshire and Humber region.

As well as supporting the livelihoods of around 1,600 farmers, the industry also results in more than 1,500 jobs in associated sectors, including haulage.

Beyond this economic impact, sugar also provides real environmental benefits including an important winter habitat for birds and springtime nest sites for key species such as skylark.

In addition, it is one of the crops to benefit from farmers' ongoing efforts to reduce the use of crop protection chemicals, efforts that have resulted in a 50 per cent reduction over the last 10 years.

Updated: 14:48 Wednesday, February 09, 2005