In this week’s round of USDA reports, the Agriculture Department projected U.S. sugar beet farmers will produce a record 5.09 million short tons of sugar from beets in the 2016-2017 growing season. Pro Farmer’s First Thing Today reports that record production would come despite food manufacturers’ push for non-GMO cane sugar. This increase in production comes as the industry faces a five percent drop in cane production to 3.62 million metric tons due to the closure of a cane mill in Hawaii. Beets represent nearly 60 percent of U.S. sugar output and have been reliant of genetically engineered seeds since 2008. The recent push for non-GMO cane has strained the U.S. sugar program and has cane refiners pressuring USDA to increase raw sugar imports at a time when sugar beet inventories are swelling.
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