Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative Board Chairman Nate Hultgren says a combination of disease pressure, excess moisture, and weak sugar prices made 2025 one of the most difficult years growers have faced. Speaking at the American Sugarbeet Growers Association annual meeting, Hultgren described Cercospora leaf spot as devastating for southern Minnesota. “It seemed like every morning you’d wake up and there was a tenth of rain overnight, and everything just stayed wet all the time, which is the perfect environment for disease,” Hultgren said. “The Cercospora just ravaged the beets.” Hultgren says low production values combined with an oversupplied sugar market have intensified financial pressure. “There’s no reason to be bringing in offshore sugar at this point when we produce so much of this domestically.”
