Rogers Sugar has pulled the plug on this year’s sugar beet harvest.
In a news release, the company says because of the adverse severe weather conditions this season across Alberta, it’s terminating the 2019 harvest leaving 45% of the crop in the ground.
The decision was made following an exhaustive analysis by the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers and Rogers, which jointly determined that severe snow and frost damage has resulted in an inability to store or process the unharvested damaged sugar beet crop.
As a result, they now estimate the current crop should derive a quantity of refined sugar ranging between 60,00 and 70,000 metric tonnes.
The shortfall will be made up with cane sugar from its Vancouver and Montreal refineries, which both have excess capacity.
There are 190 beet producers in southern Alberta. The only sugar beet processing plant in Canada in in Taber.
(With files from CBC)