Ashburton: 'sugar supplies to the South Island’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 19

Ashburton: 'sugar supplies to the South Island’

A sugar beet industry is expected to be established in the Ashburton district within the next five years.

Questionnaires were sent out by the Mid-Canterbury Federated Farmers late last year to the 1500 farmers in the district with 10 acres or more land and although only 20 per cent have been returned, they show farmers’ willingness to allocate 6000 acres for sugar beet. GOVT MINIMUM The secretary of Federated Farmers and the federation’s sugar beet committee (Mr A. G. Lloyd) said this week that the federation had been required only to have 8000 acres assured for production before the Government would establish the industry. Over and above this 8000 acres the committee could not guarantee farmers a market for the beet, he said. He asked farmers to return their completed questionnaires as soon as possible, whether or not they intended to grow the crop. If further questionnaires indicated willingness to grow more than 8000 acres, those who applied first would be accepted, Mr Lloyd said, and contracts would be issued.

Sugar beet is a three-year rotation crop and the contract would provide for several seasons. “QUALITY ASSURED’’

Even considering present returns for other farm produce, beet seemed an attractive proposition, he said. Feasibility studies throughout the county had confirmed Suitable soil types, and climatic conditions, with irrigated land, were expected to give about 17-ton yields. These yields and their sucrose content are considerably higher than world averages.

It was hoped that eventually the industry would supply all the South Island's sugar requirements. However, it would not interfere with overseas commitments, because it would be manufacturing only New Zealand’s increased requirements. MORE SUGAR EATEN The chairman of the sugar beet committee (Mr F. Newton) said that New Zealand had a responsibility to help

meet appeals for production of sugar. A senior representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation was, in the questionnaire, reported to have warned delegates at an international symposium against complacency over future sugar requirements. He referred to the “astonishing” growth of consumption during the last 20 years and said that F.A.O. forecasts were for an even

higher rate of expansion between now and 1980.

He said world demand for sugar in 1980 would reach 92.8 m tons, an increase of 22.6 m tons since 1970.

Fifty per cent of this increased demand would be in the low-income, developing countries, he said. New Zealand is the only arable farming area in the world not producing at least some of its sugar requirements from beet.