California sugar beet facility to close
The Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative will shut down its Brawley, Calif., sugar beet plant—California’s last—citing long-term financial challenges. Processing ends in July 2025, with warehousing continuing into 2026. Despite $100 million in upgrades, cumulative losses and rising costs made the facility unviable. SMBSC will now focus on its Renville, Minnesota operations.
BRAWLEY, CALIF. — The Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative (SMBSC) said it will be decommissioning of its Brawley, Calif., sugar beet facility that operates under its subsidiary, Spreckels Sugar Co., Inc. It is the last sugar beet processing plant in California.
The plant closing process is expected to begin in late July as the current processing season winds down, although warehousing and shipping will continue until all products have left the facilities in late 2025 or early 2026, the company said. In California, sugar beets are planted in the fall and harvested from April through July, unlike the rest of the country, where beets are planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer into the fall.
“This decision comes after a thorough evaluation of the long-term financial and operational challenges facing the facility as well as an assessment of the economic challenges and uncertainty facing the sugar industry that have been building for several years,” the company said.
“This was a difficult decision brought about by factors largely out of our control,” said Paul Fry, president and chief executive officer of SMBSC. “Despite our extensive investments in the facility, the economic challenges facing the sugar industry have been building for several years as the costs of operating the Spreckels facility have continued to escalate. As a result, we made the difficult decision to close the Brawley factory and carefully focus our resources on the Renville, Minn., factory given its strong performance and updated technologies. We appreciate the California Beet Growers Association working with us over the years and are proud of this facility and the workers who have operated it. During this transition, our focus remains on supporting the workers at the Brawley factory and the community.”
Over the past several years, the US sugar industry has faced various external factors that have hurt the industry, including the uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment, declines in sugar and co-product prices, the impact of inflation since the pandemic and increased volume of tier-two imports — all affecting sugar factories across the country, SMBSC said.
“On top of this, the US sugar program and its out-of-date loan rates for refined beet sugar have neither kept up with inflation nor the rising costs of production,” the company said. “The result is that the Spreckels facility has suffered cumulative losses over more than a decade. Taken as a whole, it was determined these factors make the future of the Brawley facility not financially viable.”
The facility has lost money over the past 10 years, despite investments of about $100 million to make improvements and repairs to try to modernize the plant, the company said.
“SMBSC will instead focus its resources on the Renville, Minn., factory considering its strong performance, modern technologies, industry-leading production capacity and logistical advantages,” the company said. “Focusing SMBSC’s resources on the Renville facility will help ensure the continued viability of the cooperative and best support SMBSC’s business and broader workforce into the future.
“As part of its strategic shift, SMBSC is exploring new avenues for growth and partnership opportunities at the facility. SMBSC is engaging with local stakeholders to explore repurposing the property to support economic development within the community. The company is committed to maintaining positive community relations and transparency throughout this process.”
The Brawley beet facility was built in 1947 and was purchased by the Holly Sugar Corp. in 1996. SMBSC bought Holly Sugar from the Imperial Sugar Co. around 2005, and closed the Spreckels Sugar Co. plant in Mendota, Calif., in 2008.Sugar beet planted area in California has been around 28,000 acres the past two years, according to US Department of Agriculture data, making it about the sixth or seventh largest (depending on year) out of 11 sugar beet growing states. California sugar beet production in 2025 was estimated at 1,322,000 tons, out of total US production of 35,278,000 tons, accounting for 3% to 4% of total US sugar beet production.
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Source : Food Business News
