Beet Price Delay May 16, 2014 12:00 am It seems that beet growers may have to wait longer than usual to find out the price for next season. The announcement is usually made at the Cereals Event, but British Sugar and the NFU are still working out details of a new pricing structure. Following criticism of the formula calculation that has been operating for the past four seasons (but was effectively abandoned for the 2014 crop) a review of beet pricing system has been carried out. It appears that this may result in the abandonment of a single price for the whole industry. Instead a range of pricing systems could be offered. One of these would be similar to the current arrangement of a fixed contracted price agreed well before planting of the crop. But there would be other options that would transfer more risk and reward to growers – i.e. the price could change through the season in line with factors such as sugar commodity prices, currency or competing crop values. Wewill report on details when they are available.
