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Sugar‑beet growers and Amalgamated Sugar tell committee domestic sugar program, labor and permitting shape Idaho production
Summary
Leaders from the Snake River Sugar Beet Growers Association and Amalgamated Sugar Company told the Senate Agricultural Committee that domestic sugar production supports Idaho jobs and local dairies, stressed the farm bill's importance to price stability and asked for state support to address permitting backlogs and workforce training.
Representatives of the Snake River Sugar Beet Growers Association and the grower‑owned Amalgamated Sugar Company presented the industry's scale, manufacturing process and policy priorities to the Idaho Senate Agricultural Committee on an unspecified date.
"There's about 18% of a sugar beet is sugar," Zach Patterson, president of the Snake River Sugar Beet Growers Association, said during his presentation and explained the planting, harvesting and storage cycle for beet growers. He said American farmers produce roughly 9 million tons of sugar domestically while the United States imports about 3 million tons to meet consumption.
Amalgamated General Counsel Christina Hardesty told the committee the cooperative—owned and governed by roughly 700 sugar‑beet growers in Idaho, Oregon and Washington—contributes about $1 billion annually to the Idaho economy, operates three processing factories and runs 72 receiving stations.
"We produ…
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