Beet growers urged to join profit monitor

BEET growers have been invited by Irish Sugar to become involved in a profit monitor programme.

The company has told growers that costs in the future will have to be as low as possible through the full production, processing and distribution chain.

It follows a series of grower meetings in January which addressed the challenges facing the Irish sugar sector in the coming years.

Irish Sugar is now issuing a leaflet to all beet growers summarising the content of the meetings and inviting them to become involved in profit monitoring.

“Following on from the well attended sessions, we have produced a leaflet which summarises the presentations and discussions which took place and we are now circulating it to all of our growers,” said Martin Ryan, Director of Agribusiness, Irish Sugar.

He said the central issue they all have in common is competitiveness. In EU terms Irish Sugar is a very small player with only 1.4% of the current quota and a large number of growers relative to our competitors.

Impending change may necessitate consolidation and Irish Sugar will consider restructuring for growers. Looking to the future, costs will have to be as low as possible throughout the full production, processing and distribution chain.

According to Mr Ryan, the over-riding issue facing the industry will be a price/cost squeeze for both processors and growers.

Central to that is the large volume of imported sugar (40,000 tonnes/annum) displacing the higher priced Irish product.

“Against this backdrop, we are proposing to establish a profit monitor project for growers. In particular, this will focus on the cost differences per tonne of beet produced on different farms. It would appear, in Ireland and in other countries, that the gross margin gap between top and bottom is as big as €10 per tonne of beet produced.”

The objective of the profit monitor programme is to identify, clarify and validate the key factors, with a view to disseminating the findings to growers.

“We are looking for a minimum of 20 committed growers that will share detailed cost information on an absolutely confidential basis with our project manager and an agricultural consultant who will analyse and validate the data.” Mr Ryan said at no point will participants be identifiable in any way though the use of the data. Initial results will be communicated through a new ‘Beet Grower’ bulletin.

Growers interested in being part of the project are advised to contact Sean Kenny at 059 916 5000 or 087 646 8821.