5-10 FB Sugar Beet Prices
Things must be great in Montana for sugar beet farmers according to the Billings Gazette which has a headline saying “Beet farmers could cash in on global sugar shortage”. The article goes on to say sugar could again be a sweet deal for farmers facing low prices for other commodities but near-record payments for beets. The crop in Montana is benefiting from a world sugar shortage, now in its second year, caused by poor weather in India and Brazil.
“Everybody is really excited because we have very good sugar prices, and it looks like our crop was planted in a very timely pace,” said Mike Hofer, vice president of agriculture for the Western Sugar Cooperative. On the other hand, University of Idaho Agricultural economist Paul Patterson does have a caveat about sugar beet prices: “It’s one of those things that’s always difficult to find is the price on sugar beets and it’s certainly linked to the price of sugar and the one thing is that it’s going to be based on the sugar content quality that the beets would have.”
