U.S. sugarbeet acreage drops to lowest level in decades on weather and economic concerns

Fewer acres of sugarbeets were planted in 2026 in the U.S. than had been planted for decades, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s acreage report released on June 30. Both weather and economics bear some of the blame for the decrease. ADVERTISEMENT The report estimated 2026 acreage at 1.033 million acres. Leading the way for the crop were Minnesota (417,000 acres), North Dakota (208,000), Idaho (152,000) and Michigan (138,000). The other reporting states — Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming – showed fewer than 100,000 acres each. The report showed 2025 acreage at 1.079 million. Most states decreased in acreage from 2025, with Colorado dropping an estimated 14,300 acres, Nebraska 12,100, Minnesota 9,000, Colorado 6,800, North Dakota 5,000, and Wyoming 4,300. Paul Schlagel, a Colorado sugarbeet farmer and a director of the Colorado Sugarbeet Growers Association, said weather was to blame for the big dip in acres in Colorado and Nebraska, where farmers grow for Western Sugar Cooperative. Both states have faced increasing drought concerns in the past year. “In the crop year of 2026, it’s almost 100% due to our droughts, and in Colorado, along the Front Range, where the irrigation is absolutely dependent on snowpack that we did not receive this past winter. And so that’s where our acreages are down. And crop insurance has a great deal to do with that; you have to be so careful how you deal with that, to make sure that you have adequate water,” Schlagel explained. He said prevented planting acreage along the Front Range was up for sugarbeets, too, as farmers knew they weren’t going to have sufficient water for the crop. “You go in the eastern part of Colorado, and they have more irrigation wells, and that’s not a factor,” he said. “So if you look at it, most of the acreage drops are going to be along the Front Range in Colorado. And the same’s going to hold true to western Nebraska, Scotts Bluff area, where they depend on snowpack.” While not all states decreased in acreage, the states that increased were far from enough to offset the decrease in the other states. Michigan growers are estimated to have grown about 4,100 acres more in 2026 than in 2025. Oregon acreage went up by an estimated 1,000 acres. Montana acreage went up by an estimated 400 acres. Washington, at only 2,000 acres in both years, stayed the same from 2025. ADVERTISEMENT Acreage for sugarbeets generally has declined over time. Nationwide acreage was pegged at 1.5652 million in 2000. By 2016, acreage was 1.1634 million acres. The number fluctuated slightly at just over 1.1 million acres until falling below that level in 2024, when farmers grew 1.0872 million. But even as acreage has fallen, sugarbeet production has stayed relatively steady through the years, as per-acre yields continue to increase. According to USDA data since 2000, U.S. sugarbeet production has ranged from a low of 25.708 million tons in 2001 to a high of 36.92 million in 2016. Schlagel said Western Sugar had a banner year in 2025, with record yields that led to the company processing more sugar than ever before. If the beets were worth more, he thinks more would be grown. “If we wouldn’t have had this setback in the price of the sugarbeets we’re getting, I mean, we have the opportunity to expand acres and hopefully we get through this and we will expand some acres as we go forward,” Schlagel said. But to get there, Schlagel said something will have to be done about “unfair trade practices” that the sugar industry faces. The industry — including grower groups and processors, as well as sugar-state members of Congress — have raised alarms in recent years about what a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer called “discriminatory foreign trade practices.” Imports of sugar into the U.S. are governed by tariff-rate quotas, which allow a certain quantity of sugar to enter the country under a low tariff. Sugar above the quota is allowed if the importers pay the Tier-2 tariff. Sugar prices have plummeted in recent years, and the industry blames an overabundance of imports coming in through the Tier-2 tariff. Brazil has been, by far, the largest supplier of that Tier-2 sugar. The sugar industry has urged action to raise the Tier-2 tariff, which the industry argues is too small to effectively stop other countries from dumping sugar in the U.S. However, users of sugar — represented by the Sweetener Users Association — have suggested instead that unused sugar import quotas should be reallocated under the tariff rate quota system, as required in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that tariff rate quotas be increased or reallocated when available supplies aren’t sufficient to meet projected demand, that USDA ensures that supply estimates accurately reflect deliveries and ending stocks, and that the minimum tariff rate quota be adjusted over time to reflect growth in U.S. sugar demand. ADVERTISEMENT “Sugar users and producers share an interest in reducing reliance on costly high-tier imports,” said Randy Green of Watson Green LLC during a panel discussion at the American Sugar Alliance’s 41st International Sweetener Symposium. “But making these last-resort imports even more expensive will not address the supply shortages that have caused them to increase. The more effective solution is to ensure adequate sugar is available through normal channels before manufacturers are forced to pay high-tier duties.” Shawn Arita, associate director of the Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University, who also was at the symposium, said there is some truth to that. If other changes aren’t made, it will continue to lead to a “flood” of Tier-2 sugar. “Ultimately, on the sugar side, we do have a fairly well-managed system outside of Tier-2,” he said. Arita said a “fluctuating tariff scene” under the second Trump administration has provided a look at what tariff rates can do to sugar import levels. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act that Trump put in place in 2025 included a 50% tariff on Brazil, which included sugar. “That did slow down significantly the Tier-2 imports,” he said. Having that tariff in place did help raise the price of refined and raw sugar slightly, he said. However, he and his colleagues studied the overall impact of the tariffs on import levels from all countries and found that other countries “backfilled” more than half of the sugar that Brazil was no longer sending to the U.S. ADVERTISEMENT The U.S. Supreme Court later struck down those tariffs, and imports from Brazil resumed. After that, a blanket 10% tariff was in place. Sugar growers and processors had asked for a Section 301 investigation into Brazil, which is a trade probe conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative under the Trade Act of 1974. It authorizes the U.S. to investigate foreign acts, policies or practices that hurt U.S. commerce. In July, the Trump administration placed a new 25% Section 301 tariff on Brazil, along with an additional 12.5% forced-labor tariff, Arita explained. He anticipates that will have an impact on sugar imports from Brazil, as the tariffs will put the price at a disadvantage over U.S. sugar. Meanwhile, other suppliers who are not impacted by that large tariff will likely increase the sugar they send into the U.S., making Tier-2 imports “not as severe as what we saw over the more recent years,” Arita said. While tariffs are one tool to control Tier-2 sugar, Arita said policymakers have to balance the needs of users of sugar with the needs of growers and processors. Concerns of forfeiture — which happens when sugar processors choose to surrender their sugar crop to the government rather than repay government loans when market prices drop below loan values — have dropped recently but will not go away until prices rebound. But while import channels are one factor in sugar prices, Arita said weather also plays a huge role, and a global supply shortage could change the landscape, too. “One thing to keep in mind: Trade policy has garnered a lot of attention, but at the same time, these broader market forces could easily drown that out as well,” he said.