If a sugar beet industry is to be reinstated in this country, 1,000 farmers or others need to invest €1,000 each in a new cooperative to drive the industry forward. And they must decide to do this in the next six weeks, because the decision will have to be finalised in 2018.

This was the central message from Beet Ireland representatives at a meeting in Carlow last Wednesday organised by the Irish Tillage and Land Use Society.

The money is to be used to fund a new cooperative to drive the project to its next stage following the purchase of a site for the proposed factory.

The proposal being put to growers is that farmers put in €1m in equity into this new cooperative at this point and Beet Ireland would put in a similar amount in value.

If this cooperative is established, it will organise planning, licenses, funding, construction contractors, etc.

It will also have to organise the funding for the project, both borrowings and equity investment and the level of control that farmers will have will be dependent on the level of subsequent equity investment.

These willing to invest the initial €1,000 will have preferential treatment in terms of access to growing beet but the level of dividend will depend on the subsequent equity taken in the project.

Opportunity

The project was described by Beet Ireland chair Michael Hoey as an opportunity for farmers to get up the added value chain as they have been price takers for far too long.

But this requires farmers making a significant commitment to the project to have a significant level of say in the business.

The planned factory will have the capacity to process 1.4m tonnes of beet but it expected that individuals will opt for different production areas. The factory will produce around 210,000t of sugar plus 19m litres of bioethanol.

Next meeting

The next meeting that Beet Ireland will address is being organised by the Irish Grain Growers Group (IGGG) in the Talbot Hotel in Carlow on Thursday 15 November at 8.00pm. This meeting is open to all.

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