British Sugar's enhanced support package for beleaguered beet growers is not "anywhere near enough" to stop farmers abandoning the crop next season, said angry agricultural leaders.

Following a challenging year of poor weather conditions, low yields and high levels of crop disease, British Sugar has unveiled its "Beet Package Plus" to help growers during the 2021/22 campaign.

It includes an enhanced contract price, with a guaranteed minimum market-linked bonus from 80p per tonne, underwritten by the company.

The firm also offered cash-flow support, allowing East Anglian growers to defer their seed invoice interest-free, more "campaign flexibility" to accommodate beet deliveries delayed by waterlogged fields, and a £12m assurance fund to compensate against yield losses from virus yellows disease.

But Fenland grower Michael Sly, chairman of the National Farmers' Union's sugar board (NFU Sugar), said the offer was not enough to give growers a "viable financial return", putting the home-grown sugar industry at risk.

"NFU Sugar in no way supports or endorses British Sugar’s ‘Beet Package Plus’ communication and does not believe it is anywhere near enough to stop many growers giving up sugar beet for good when their current contracts finish," he said.

"For months NFU Sugar has expressed its concerns to British Sugar, and to the highest levels of [parent company] AB Sugar, about the future viability of the home-grown sugar industry. Continuing low contract prices, coupled with much greater risks of yield loss from disease, means sugar beet is no longer viewed by many growers as a viable part of their rotations.

“Throughout, NFU Sugar has argued for a targeted package to acknowledge the risks growers have and will continue to face in growing the crop. This has not been delivered.

"NFU Sugar also urged British Sugar to increase the support for those growers who are honouring their multi-year contracts and so risk big losses again this year. British Sugar refused.

"NFU Sugar urged British Sugar to pay growers some of their 2021 contract in early summer to help with the desperate cash flow situation many growers are facing. Again, British Sugar refused. NFU Sugar estimates the ‘cash flow support’ British Sugar has offered to growers to be worth just one penny per tonne on average.

"NFU Sugar believes in the future of the home-grown sugar beet industry, but we remain increasingly concerned that British Sugar’s complacency puts this at severe risk."

Harry Mitchell, agriculture engagement manager at British Sugar, said the package was a fair offer, and it was up to individual farmers to assess the viability of sugar beet in their rotation.

"There is a lot of emotion out there, and a lot of it is about the challenges of the weather on the crop," he said. "Across the whole rotation we have all suffered quite an exceptional year.

"When it comes to growing sugar beet it is an individual grower's decision and we have always respected that. It is down to individuals to look at where beet fits in their rotation in order to look at their own profitability and in order to know if it is right for them.

"Sugar beet is widely regarded as the preferred break crop for growers in East Anglia, and when you look at the package that is being offered by British Sugar, you have got the beet price, plus a guaranteed 80p or 82p market-linked bonus, plus you are going to get access to the £12m virus yellows fund, plus the option of cashflow support. Then there's a guaranteed surplus beet price and we are also going to much more flexible in next year's campaign too.

"We will respect individual growers' decisions, but we do believe we have their back. We think it is a fair offer that we are putting on the table.

"It provides greater flexibility and it does enhance their existing package that they signed up to last year."