Alberta sugar beet growers reach new deal with Lantic

The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers marketing board has reached a new four-year agreement with sugar company Lantic Inc.

Montreal-based Lantic had threatened to wind down operations at its plant in Taber, Alta., the only sugar-beet processing plant in Canada, if a deal couldn't be reached.

Lantic, a subsidiary of Rogers Sugar, says its production target is 80,000 metric tonnes of refined sugar this year.

READ: Talks sour between Lantic and sugar beet growers in Alberta

About 200 beet growers in the region were waiting for the deal before seeding their fields.

Farmers in southern Alberta grow the vast majority of Canada's sugar beets, while Ontario producers shipping their crop to the U.S. for processing.

Lantic's factory in Taber employs up to 250 full and part-time workers.

The company's sugar products are marketed under the Lantic brand in Eastern Canada and the Rogers trademark in Western Canada. Its products include granulated, icing, cube, yellow and brown sugars, liquid sugars and specialty syrups.