The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the 2023 sugarbeet crop was even bigger than the agency originally believed, and the outlook is for another big crop to be harvested in 2024.
In the July World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report released on July 12, 2024, the USDA increased the tonnage of the crop harvested in 2023 by 134,000 short tons.
“In terms of sugar production, we made a pretty large increase in our beet — sugarbeet — production forecast. This is reflecting processor data, and it’s suggesting that crop was a lot larger than we had expected it to be,” explained Mark Jekanowski, World Agricultural Outlook Board chairperson, in an Agricultural Statistics Board Briefing. USDA also increased the cane sugar production from last year slightly in the July WASDE.
The narration of the WASDE report explained that the 2023 sugarbeet adjustment was made as beet slicing wrapped up across the country, other than in California, which runs on a different growing cycle than the typically northern states involved in sugarbeet production.
The 2023 sugarbeet crop was record or near record in some growing regions of the United States and about average in others. Minnesota and North Dakota sugarbeet growers had far above average crops. American Crystal Sugar Co., based in Moorhead, Minnesota, had a record crop of 12.7 million tons at 18.55% sugar. Minn-Dak Farmers Co-op in Wahpeton, North Dakota, in the fall estimated a top three or four crop on record, and Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Co-op in Renville, Minnesota, harvested their second largest crop on record.
USDA is anticipating another big sugarbeet crop in 2024, with 5.236 million short tons predicted, compared to the 5.179 million that USDA now believes came from the 2023 crop.
Jekanowski explained the USDA had increased its outlook for the crop to be harvested in fall 2024 by 124,816 short tons over June estimates based on “favorable yield outlook adding as well to the production outlook for the new crop year.” An increase in sugar from desugared molasses due to expansion of capacity also played into the expectation of more sugar production in 2024, the WASDE said.
Jekanowski said the numbers used to estimate the increase came from the acreage expectation in the June acreage report — which estimated that harvested sugarbeet acres will be 1.0886 million — as well as an expected increased national yield due to early planting. The June acreage report also had noted the quick pace of sugarbeet planting, which was 66% planted as of April 28, compared to a five-year average of 32%. By May 19, planting in Minnesota — the top sugarbeet state — was at 98% complete, ahead of the five-year average of 75%. In North Dakota — also one of the major sugarbeet producing states — planting as of May 19 was at 97%, ahead of the five-year average of 73%.
