Sugar beet growers have criticised the announcement of a "disappointing" crop price before contract talks have concluded - but processors claim it simply sets a minimum to help them plan their finances.

Negotiations are still ongoing between British Sugar and its East Anglian growers to agree a price for the 2022/23 beet crop.

But, before a deal has been reached, the processor announced an "indicative" price of £25 per tonne, which farmers say is not enough to counteract the risk of growing a crop which was badly damaged by viruses last year.

North Norfolk grower Kit Papworth, a member of the National Farmers' Union's sugar board (NFU Sugar), said: "The offer is disappointing and shows total disregard to the virus issues of last year and the risk of growing the crop.

"Growers will understandably be insulted that British Sugar has chosen to come out with a price that isn’t agreed with NFU Sugar."

But British Sugar said the price already reflects a 23pc increase on the previous year, and was announced early to give growers an indication of the minimum income from their crop.

Harry Mitchell, agriculture engagement manager at British Sugar, said: "Yes, we are still to reach agreement with NFU Sugar, but in the meantime, especially after the tough year we had last year, we had an opportunity to truly listen to growers and one of the key things that came out of that was the growers said to us that even if you have not agreed something by the end of June, let us know where you are in your thinking.

"It is still a negotiation, so who knows where it will end up, but this is an absolute minimum so at least growers can start to make decisions knowing where £25 per tonne fits in their crop profitability calculators when they are looking at crop decisions."

Mr Mitchell said the payment threshold for the firm's virus yellows crop assurance fund had been raised from 45pc to 70pc to give greater assistance to virus-hit farmers.

And he said some growers could add 50p per tonne to their price by taking advantage of a "local grower premium" and another 50p by opting out of the virus yellows scheme if they wanted to accept that risk themselves.

"So straight away you can get to £26 per tonne," he said. "There is this scale you can start to see from this minimum we have put in place."