Photo: Rusty Halvorson/KFGO Ag News
FARGO (KFGO) – Declining world sugar prices and excessive imports are presenting some challenges for the region’s sugar industry.
Growers at the 2025 joint annual meeting of American Crystal Sugar and the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association learned that crop production in 2025 was a record-breaking 13.3 million tons of sugarbeets harvested this fall.
Sugar content for the 2025 crop was described as “fair” at 18 percent – compared to last year’s 18.5 percent.
During a media briefing, American Crystal President and CEO Tom Astrup shared information that showed increased sugar content, good beet storage and processing results, combined with a favorable sugar market – resulted in a net payment of 78 dollars per ton for the 2024 crop.
“All in all, a pretty good year there. Nice crop, nice processing season, pretty respectable beet payment. And then, of course, we’re talking a little bit about the future as well. 2025 crop was, again, a very, very nice crop. But we’ve, you know, we talked about some challenges we have ahead, both in terms of demand for sugar and in terms of price for sugar. So the economic outlook on the ‘25 crop is much, much more challenging.”
The forecasted net payment per ton for the 2025 crop was lowered to $43.85.
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