Getting access to sugar as of late has been a bitter pill to swallow for some but the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers say the pressures lie outside the province.
Executive Director Jennifer Crowson says sugar beet growers supply roughly eight per cent of the sugar on the Canadian market, which is the equivalent of roughly 125,000 tons of sugar per year. She explains the Lantic refinery in Taber is the only sugar beet refinery located in the country.
“They have a process where they bring the beet in, they slice them, and then they boil them and get something they call thick juice; that is then what they make sugar from,” Crowson says.
Along with producing both granulated white sugar, powdered icing sugar and sugar beat syrup, the process also produces by-products such as molasses, and beat pulp. Crowson adds that many soda companies and beekeepers use sugar beet syrup, with it being an essential part of how bee keepers feed their hives.
This past growing season Crowson says growers saw an increase in yield from the year before, even after having to leave roughly 1,500 acres of crop in the ground due to below-freezing temperatures.
“So in saying that, there is no shortage of beets in southern Alberta, we had a record crop year,” Crowson says. “As a grower base, we are always looking to expand our industry and the number of acres we grow here in southern Alberta.”
Crowson says Roger’s granulated sugar or icing sugar that is grown and produced in southern Alberta can be identified by the stamp on the packaging that starts with the number 22.
At the end of September the Rogers Sugar Inc. refinery in Vancouver, which is one of three large sugar refineries in Canada that processes imported cane sugar, reportedly saw employees go on strike due to issues over wages and benefits, along with the company’s proposal to go to a year-round 24 hour operation. The strike has reportedly been the cause of the intermittent access to sugar in western Canada and the shortage that is seen on store shelves.