Beet growers plan protest (From Gazette & Herald)

Beet growers plan protest

ANGRY beet growers in North and East Yorkshire plan to demonstrate in Brussels next month.

As many as 1,600 farmers in the region, as well as 1,500 people working in associated sectors such as haulage, are enraged by new European proposals, which would slash sugar prices by at least 39 per cent while compensating farmers for just 60 per cent of the price cut.

They recognise the need for reform to counter the effects on Third World countries of dumping of surplus European sugar on global markets.

But they say that the proposals being debated next month will cripple the beet industry, and could be the last straw for many farmers thinking of abandoning their occupation.

Beet-growing plays a huge role in Yorkshire's economy, given the need for York-based British Sugar to process 150,000 tonnes of sugar from more than 1.2 million tonnes of beet grown across the county.

Regional protest organiser David Wilmot-Smith is appealing to all farmers who serve the plant to converge on the European Parliament with placards on Monday, July 18.

There they will join hundreds of other beet farmers from all over Europe who will be trying to influence the outcome of the debate on the proposal.

"There is everything to play for now," said Mr Wilmot-Smith, whose York British Sugar quota is an annual 400 tonnes grown on his farm at Gunby Hall. "There's no doubt the proposals are very tough but there have been some positive changes from what was initially suggested."

Mr Wilmot-Smith, who sits on the North East regional sugar board of the National Farmers Union, said he feared that many formers in North and East Yorkshire could lose about £10,000 as a result of price cuts "at a time when wheat, barley and milk are now no longer paying and as uncertainty reigns over the mid-term review of the European Common Agricultural Policy". The farmers' message now had to be taken in person right to the heart of the debate in Brussels, he said. "I don't believe our demands are unreasonable. All we want is the chance to continue growing what is an environmentally-friendly crop."

Britain was only 50 per cent self-sufficient in sugar, importing the remainder from sugar cane producers, whose entire economy was often dependent on sugar production, he said.

Updated: 13:39 Wednesday, June 29, 2005