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   MP urges fair play for sugar beet growers free web page hit counter  

Richard at the controls of a beet lifter
Sugar beet growers who want to
cease production are set to be
granted compensation equal to
64.2 per cent of revenues lost

South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has written to environment secretary Margaret Beckett and asked her to ensure that sugar beet growers continue to command a fair price for their product, once the deal to cut EU sugar subsidies by 36 per cent is implemented.

Mr Bacon said: “The new sugar regime will be painful for Norfolk farmers, many of whom have relied on sugar beet as a staple crop.  I have asked Mrs Beckett to ensure that farmers who want to go on growing sugar beet will operate in a fair market and will continue to get a fair price”.

 


Those growers who wish to leave the sugar beet market are
set to receive compensation payments amounting to 64.2 per cent of the revenues lost.  However, there remains some concern on the part of MPs and the National Farmers' Union over exactly how these payments are to be allocated.

Mr Bacon added: “Arable farmers did not expect to profit from Foot and Mouth compensation payments.  Similarly, compensation for sugar beet growers should not be diverted into the agricultural industry as a whole, but concentrated on those farmers who are ceasing beet production”.

2 December 2005

 

See also:
LOCAL NEWS: MP quizzes ministers on sugar beet quotas
 
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