Not so sweet for sugar beet growers 15 years on from EU deregulation

EU's beet crop halved since 2005 as pressure on growers increases

Crop disease, low prices, and bad weather have made sugar beet unprofitable for many UK and EU farmers.

British farmers fear their sugar beet will go the way of the crop in Ireland, where it hasn’t been grown for sugar since 2006.

The crop is also in trouble in France, where last week’s freezing temperatures may have caused severe damage to newly planted sugar beet, adding to problems with crop disease and low prices in recent seasons.