California factory’s abrupt shutdown marks the end of an era

California has been a major sugar beet producer in America for over a century.

It’s a tradition of farming that has passed from one generation of Californians to the next for an era.

That era came to an abrupt halt this year as the final sugar beet refinery in California shut down.

The last toehold of the state’s traditional sugar beet farming was in Brawley, California, where Spreckels Sugar Company’s last West Coast refinery had operated for decades.

But earlier this year Spreckels announced plans to close the factory, which had been running at a loss for years, and to focus on operations in Minnesota.

This was, of course, a devastating loss to the factory workers – but it’s arguably even worse for the farmers.

There’s a reason all the remaining sugar beet farms in California clustered around Brawley – it’s because transporting raw product is expensive, so it’s preferable to be as close to the refinery as possible so you can get rid of all the dead weight.

With no refineries left on the West Coast, that’s no longer possible.

So the Spreckels closure doesn’t just mark the end of sugar beet refining in California – it also probably means that sugar beet farming will be so expensive as to be impossible to continue.

It could well mark the end of a way of life for sugar beet farmers.

So please join us in wishing them well – leave any notes of encouragement in the comment section!