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British Sugar offers enhanced support package for 2021/22 campaign

18 February 2021

British Sugar has offered its 3,000 sugar beet growers an enhanced support package for the 2021/22 campaign, following the industry facing a challenging season over the previous year.

Our ‘Beet Package Plus’ will offer growers:

• An enhanced 2021/22 contract beet price, with a built-in guaranteed minimum market linked bonus, underwritten by British Sugar, from 80p per adjusted tonne
• Cash flow support, allowing growers to defer their seed invoice until campaign, interest free
• More campaign flexibility to accommodate beet deliveries, recognising that growers understandably do not wish to operate harvesters in fields that are waterlogged and simply not suitable for lifting
• Guaranteed 2021/22 surplus beet price fixed at £20.30 adjusted/tonne

The £12m Virus Yellows Assurance Fund also remains in place. The fund is provided by British Sugar for three years, starting from the 2021/22 campaign, to compensate growers for a proportion of yield losses suffered where Virus Yellows is present in their crop.

Additionally, to support growers over the final weeks of the current campaign, we have slowed beet throughput at our factories, to allow more time for growers to deliver their remaining crop. Should this not be possible before their contracted factory finishes its campaign for this season, growers will be able to deliver to their next closest factory, at British Sugar’s cost.

British Sugar Agriculture Director, Peter Watson, commented, “Following a difficult season in 2020/21, we are pleased to offer this enhanced support package to our sugar beet growers, to help the whole industry for the upcoming season. We thank growers for their considerable support over the last year and look forward to working with all our colleagues across the homegrown beet sugar industry in the upcoming season.”

• Under the ‘Beet Package Plus’ 2021/22 contract beet prices will be as follows:

• Wissington factory finished its 2020/21 campaign on 13th February
• For growers who are unable to deliver their remaining 2020/21 crop to their contracted factory before it closes, the difference in delivery cost will be covered by a ‘top-up' transport allowance up to 60 miles