DENVER, Colo. , Mar. 8 -- Contracting will begin immediately on the 1967 sugarbeet crop in the five-state area served by The Great Western Sugar Company.
Increased acreage was assured today when agreement on the 1967 beet-purchase contract was reached in a meeting between heads of grower associations and company executives in Billings, Mont.
Robert J. Fisher, Great Western vice president, said: "If
present trends in the sugar market continue, returns to beet growers will average about $17. 00 per ton for sugarbeets of average quality for the past ten years."
Speaking for Colorado-Kansas growers, Roy Johnson of Eaton, Colo. , president of the Mountain States Beet Growers Marketing Association of
Colorado, said:
"The directors of the association are of the sincere belief that this is the best contract ever offered in the beet sugar industry when everything is considered, and they believe the prospective returns should provide sufficient incentive to plant a full acreage in 196 7. "
In a joint statement, Ishmael Yost of Billings, president of The Mountain States Beet Growers Marketing Association of Montana, and Howard Hart of Powell, Wyo. , president of the Big Horn Basin Beet Growers Association, said: "If indicated sugar price levels are realized, which is entirely possible, ton prices will be about $1. 50 to $2. 00 higher than for the last crop, 1965, on which final payment has been made."
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-Terms of the 1967 Great Western contract have been determined by the Secretary of Agriculture to be "fair and reasonable. 11
In compliance with grower requests, Fisher said that within 30 days negotiations on the 1968 contract would be undertaken, embodying the so-called "raw-price -floor" principle. Normally, 1968 negotiations would not begin until next January.
He said that except for the substantial price increase to the grower, the terms of the 1967 participating sliding-scale contract are identical with those of the 1966 contract.
Fisher said that agreement with the Nebraska growers association had not been reached as of today, but that contracting in Nebraska would not be delayed.
