Interest high in sugar beet revival
However, active Irish beet growers must have a 30% controlling share in the industry, insists the Beet Ireland group bidding to relaunch processing. At public information meetings next week, Beet Ireland representatives will also tell farmers that finding the €400 million investment needed to restore the industry in Ireland will not present a problem.
They will report considerable progress towards reaching their goal, including successful talks with banks to put in place centrally organised lending to prospective farmer shareholders, and arrangements for long term loan repayment deductions from their beet cheques.
The farmer shareholders will be able to buy a stake in the new sugar industry — and a contract to supply 400 tons of sugar beet per year — for €25,000.
A maximum shareholding of €100,000 per farmer, in exchange for four contracts to supply sugar beet, is envisaged, according to Beet Ireland steering committee member Jim O’Regan.
Another member, Michael Hoey of the Country Crest fresh produce and food processing company, said stakes in the new sugar industry will take the form of cashable bonds earning a 6.5% annual dividend, which could act as a pension fund for participating growers.
The first Beet Ireland meeting will be in the Vienna Woods Hotel, Cork, next Monday night at 8pm.
Meetings will follow at Athy, Co Kildare on Thursday, and Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, on Monday, November 28.
Those attending will be told that two locations in the north and east of Cork, and one each in south Tipperary, Carlow, and Wexford are candidates for a proposed greenfield plant which would produce 250,000 tonnes of refined sugar and 11 million litres of fuel grade bio-ethanol per year from sugar beet. It is envisaged the project could employ 4,000 people, plus 500 extra during construction.
