Hard fought sugar deal is still bitter pill to swallow

The outcome of protracted negotiations with British Sugar over the deal for growers affected by the closure of the Allscott factory in Shropshire was revealed today.

The deal includes the new contract for those growing sugar in 2007 as well as compensation for growers affected by the closures of both the Allscott and York factories.

After a month of tense negotiations, the NFU team has achieved a compensation level of £8 a tonne for those growers that decide not to continue growing sugar beet beyond their current crop.

Other headline figures include the price for sugar beet in 2007, which has been set at £20.28 a tonne, falling to £19.22 a tonne in 2008.

But the NFU said that it was "bitterly disappointed" that growers based more than 60 miles from the next nearest factory at Newark will only be offered a contract for the factory at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

This condition was included at the insistence of British Sugar, because the Newark factory would be heavily oversubscribed once Allscott and York close.

Their original proposal was to impose a blanket 50 mile limit around Newark with nothing on the table for growers outside that area. However, British Sugar has now agreed to give growers the chance to supply beet for another year.

As a result, the deal now agreed does include a transport allowance for growers outside the 50 mile radius. This is on top of the average transport allowance of £3.30 a tonne agreed as part of the contract for next year.

In addition, growers do have other options available to them including keeping their quota and leasing it to an East Anglian grower for £7.50 a tonne, selling quota to an East Anglian grower for a similar amount or renting land in East Anglia and continuing as a grower in their own right.

Growers that supplied the Allscott factory were being given details of the deal at a meeting at the Park Inn in Telford today.