Using information from the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers Association (https://albertasugarbeets.ca/content.php?p=home) and Canadian Sugar Institute, here are some statistics from the past five years of beet production in the province.
The bulk of sugarbeet production takes place in the western province of Alberta but sugarbeets are also grown in southern Ontario. The sugarbeets grown in Ontario are produced by growers in the Ontario Sugarbeet Growers Association (https://ontariosugarbeetgrowers.ca/) who raise 11,300 acres of beets for Michigan Sugar Company and are processed in Michigan.
Alberta beets go to a factory in Taber, which is the only sugarbeet factory in the country.
Official numbers are not yet available for 2024 but there are reports of 28,115 acres of beets were planted.
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Acres Planted 28,502 30,092 28,312 27,883 25,210
Acres Harvested 15,676 29,657 28,087 27,801 23,516
Total Tonnage 463,018 903,753 877,410 872,420 856,637
Average Yield/Acre 29.80 30.47 31.24 31.37 36.43
Sugar Content 17.89% 19.42% 19.19% 18.21% 19.02%
Note: 45 percent of the 2019 crop remained unharvested due to extreme October weather events.