Sugarbeet Feature Stories

An Exclusive to The Sugarbeet Grower
By Peter Buzzanell*

     Russian beet sugar production has been trending upward in recent years, but it still only accounts for about one-half of the country’s annual demand. To fill this deficit, Russia must import massive volumes of raw cane sugar — most of which is then refined in dual beet and raw cane processing facilities.

Left: Bob Mari (at left) and his brother Rod have grown sugarbeets for Western Sugar Cooperative since 2000, prior to its becoming a co-op. Their father, Clarence (right), a second-generation grower for the old Great Western Sugar Company, stopped raising beets in 1972, so there was a nearly 30-year gap for the crop on the Mari farm near Merino, Colo.

     Bob Mari will never be a poster boy for the “This Is the Way We’ve Always Done It” club.  First, he’s a sugarbeet grower.  Second, he’s a young beet grower.  And third, he and brother Rod are relatively new beet growers, so they’re not bound by long-term habits or tradition.  They are, instead, motivated simply by the desire and need to make their operation as efficient — and profitable — as possible.  And employing a strip-till production system is a primary vehicle for the Mari brothers.  The northeastern Colorado growers have planted their center-pivot sugarbeet acres under strip till since the 2005 crop year.

     Editor’s Note: Jack Roney is having fun these days. After two decades as a sugar industry economist, “I finally get to defend a price recovery,” he radiates. “This is the moment I’ve been waiting for in my career!”

     The past year has been an exciting one in sugar markets, as world prices have risen to a three-decade high and U.S. sugar prices have also risen dramatically. What factors precipitated this price rise — and what is the prognosis for the remainder of the current marketing year and beyond?