02/25/05 Sugarbeet growers take concerns to Hill

The Central America Free Trade Agreement and its potential for tons of sugar imports into the US is just one of the concerns that Idaho sugarbeet growers want to make with certain members of Congress. DUFFIN "To make our case for voting against the trade agreement because it would really be harmful to our industry." Sugarbeet Growers Association executive director Mark Duffin says CAFTA isn't the only problem on the horizon. The President's budget would slap a new marketing assessment on sugar. DUFFIN "You know we went to a no subsidy program, a no cost to the taxpayer program to try to avoid this type of situation and be good citizens and a new tax on us right now would be more than we could really likely handle." It would cost Idaho's Amalgamated Sugar Company four and a half million dollars a year. That comes at a time when growers are trying to pay off the debt they incurred by forming the co-op. DUFFIN "So we're reducing our acres 16 percent. We're carrying over excess sugar, what we call blocked stocks that we're not able to market under the marking allocations and now on top of that they're proposing a new tax on the sugar that we are able to market." Growers feel USDA allowable sugar sales are too high and that has also contributed to prices dropping 20 percent in the past ten years. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott