Hundreds of farmers have stopped growing sugar beet under British Sugar‘s scheme to restructure the sector.

Some 500 growers – mainly smaller farmers at distance from processing plants – have quit growing beet, delegates at an NFU Council meeting were told on Tuesday (12 October).

An estimated 300,000t of beet quota relinquished by those growers had been purchased by other farmers, said NFU sugar chairman William Martin.

The restructuring scheme aims to encourage larger-scale beet growing on farms closer to British Sugar’s factories in eastern England.

Mr Martin described the initative as a success.

“It has allowed those on both sides – those who wanted to do so to expand, and those who wanted to get out – to do so,” he told NFU delegates gathering at Leamington Spa.

Beet growers harvesting this autumn are looking at smaller crops than the last couple of years, with lower sugar contents and more variable yields.

Meanwhile British Sugar has upped its requirements for sugar beet next year.

It has launched separate initiative allowing anyone with a contract to deliver an extra 20% at a fixed price known in advance.

“If you are a grower who does not want to take advantage of that, there may be others that do,” Mr Martin told growers.

“There is still room to lease contract from one grower to another.”