08/15/07 Sugar allotment is good news for Idaho

The US Department of Agriculture has set the sugar allotment for fiscal year 2008 at 8.45 million tons. Even though that's a decrease from this year's 8.75 million that's not a problem for Amalgamated Sugar Company's Vic Jaro. JARO "Our expected production will be well within line to satisfy that allocation that belongs to us and it will also allow us to move a little bit of extra sugar we've had in block stocks from the last crop." A record crop and even with the larger allocation Amalgamated had block stocks it couldn't move. Jaro is expecting an above average Idaho sugar beet crop from 181 thousand acres this year despite some wild weather swings. JARO "We had wind, we had multiple frosts and the crop got into a rough start and we ended up replanting something over 40 thousand acres." The sugarbeet harvest is still a month away in the Magic Valley. Amalgamated's Paul and Twin Falls processing plants will open September 20th but Nampa production won't begin until October 11th. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott