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Grower Assn.
President
Sees Future Improvements
By Lois Kerr
 Terry
Cayko, president of the Montana Dakota Beet Growers Association,
believes Holly Sugar and the growers will see improvements within
the sugar industry in the near future. As well, Holly Sugar itself
will face the coming years in a strong position now that the
company has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
“The growers faced some problems with the Holly Sugar Chapter 11
as the company went through bankruptcy proceedings and
reorganization,” Cayko says. “We had to make sure we covered
growers adequately and kept grower interests in mind.”
He continues, “Since Holly Sugar has
emerged from Chapter 11, it looks like business as usual. The
company has a different board of directors, which is more banker
oriented than it was before, but some of the new directors have
been involved in food services with large companies, so they do
have an understanding of agriculture. This is a plus for us.”
Cayko points out that experienced sugar
people from the Holly Sugar Corporation will continue to work with
and advise the new board members. “The new directors still
listen to Imperial Sugar’s advice, and Roger Hill will stay as
CEO of Holly Sugar for one more year at least,” Cayko remarks.
“We have one more year, through the 2002 crop season, on our
original contract, which the board is honoring. After that,
we’ll find out how the relationship will be maintained and how
we will work together.”
Besides the settling of Holly Sugar’s
financial difficulties through reorganization, Cayko points to
other positive occurrences within the sugar industry. “We’re
making progress on outstanding sugar issues,” he comments. “It
looks like the stuffed molasses issue has been settled. The
appeals court has overturned Heartland’s victory and has sided
with the growers. The court has ruled that Heartland has
circumvented the quota system. This settles the stuffed molasses
issue and will stop the practice.”
Cayko reports that talks with the Mexicans
continue, and he believes negotiators will work out the sugar
issues dividing the two countries. “Nothing is settled yet,”
he advises. “However, I think we’ll settle this issue. The
Mexican sugar industry is in trouble, and they have bigger
problems than we do.”
Because of the resolution and near
resolution of these issues, Cayko expects that the American sugar
industry will see improvements in the future. “The stuffed
molasses is stopped, hopefully we’ll reach an agreement with
Mexico, so the price of sugar should go up,” he comments.
Despite the resolution of some of the
problems within the industry, sugar interests still face
challenges. The sugar industry feels the farm bill will play a
crucial role in the health of the industry. “We need to get a
new farm bill passed with sugar included in it,” Cayko states.
“This is critical. We expect a program similar to the program
we’ve had in the past, but we as growers need to understand that
we can’t overproduce and put a glut of sugar on the market.”
He continues, “We need to control our
production. We may end up with market allotments, where each sugar
producing area will have so many acres, with no increases like
we’ve seen in the past. This allotment system will not impact
the Sidney factory area growers.”
As to this year’s harvest, Cayko remarks
that growers will not have an outstanding crop, but neither will
they see a disastrous one. “It looks like we have a somewhat
below average crop this year, due to tough times this growing
season, with winds and hail storms,” Cayko says. “However, it
could have been a lot worse. Crops recovered because we had a good
hot August and some good growing weather.” |