The chair of the Ontario Sugar Beet Growers Association says the local industry is declining as a tariff threat lingers.
Matthew Noorloos said 3,582 Canadian shares (acres) were sold back to the Michigan Sugar Co. voluntarily in December.
"The main reason is the company pays for 50 per cent of the freight. So, in terms of distance from the factory, we are the farthest," said Noorloos.
Since local farmers started growing sugar beets in the early 2000s, Noorloos said yields in some fields have doubled to as high as 50 tons an acre.
"The [Michigan] plant has a fixed processing capacity, so they're always trying to optimize the acreage to process the right amount of tons, so you don't have spoilage from carrying over too many tons," he said.
After the redemption, Noorloos said Michigan Sugar still has about 7,500 cooperative sugar beet acres in Lambton County and Chatham-Kent.
"It's really a shame to still see those acres of sugar beets gone. Sugar beets are a high revenue and typically a highly profitable crop. It's more work than corn, soybeans and wheat... but in turn, that injects more into the local economy," Noorloos said.
When asked if local sugar beets could be processed in Ontario, Noorloos said there is a growing sugar refinery in Hamilton, but it [Sucro Can Sourcing] uses raw sugar [which arrives mostly from Brazil].
He said it's hard for local farmers to complete against the imported good.
"They import foreign sugar by boat and then they refine it and then they sell it here to different companies. Canadian farmers aren't able to compete against that foreign sugar and the government subsidies that those foreign countries give to their sugar producers to make a viable industry," said Noorloos.
He said the association is monitoring the threat of potential tariffs on the crop.
"It's never great to see an industry decline, but the guys in it here are pretty committed to growing beets and enjoy growing beets. For a lot of us, it's made our farms and our businesses what it is today and we can support our families and our employees with the crop," Noorloos said.
He said if tariffs are imposed, association members will "take it as it comes and see how it goes."