Gabe Flick is one of 600 sugarbeet farmers who belong to the Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association. The sweet vegetable is newer to the mix of about 16 different crops he plants.   

Gabe Flick, Flick Farms LLC: “And, the reason we did is, I mean, partly for the stability. We needed another rotation crop.” 

Sugarbeet harvest just started along the Oregon Slope for this first generation farmer. So far, he says it’s looking to be an average year for yields, about 45 tons per acre. The projected cooperative average is a little more than 40 tons per acre.

Flick, like many in agriculture, is facing pressure from increased fuel costs. 

Gabe Flick, Flick Farms LLC: “Generally, it costs us about $23 an acre in diesel just to get the beets from this field five miles down the road to the dump. And, right now, we're running about $44 an acre.” 

He’s also looking at tariffs pulling down on the price of his beets. Within the U.S. sugar import system, tier one imports are the “quota” sugar, while tier two sugar importers pay a higher, “over quota” tariff to enter the country but in unlimited quantities.

Samantha Parrott is the executive director of the Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association which represents Idaho, Oregon and Washington state. 

Samantha Parrott, Executive Director, Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association: “This is sugar above and beyond what we need for the market. And, so, right now we're asking Congress to raise that tier two tariff in order to prohibit that extra sugar from coming in that truly is undercutting our American farmers.”  

Parrott says on average, U.S. sugarbeet farmers are losing $500 an acre.  

Gabe Flick, Flick Farms LLC: “So still operating in a loss. But we're hoping that by next year that we kind of start to pull back up into the black.”

For Market to Market, I’m Tammy Scardino.