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East Anglia’s sugar beet growers have been granted an emergency pesticide use to protect this year’s crops from a major disease threat.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) says this year’s beet crop faces the highest levels of virus-carrying aphids since 2020 – the year after the EU banned neonicotinoid seed treatments which previously protected the crop.
The NFU Sugar board and British Sugar, with support from the Norwich-based British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO), have secured emergency authorisation for a second application of a product named Insyst SG on the 2026 sugar beet crop.
This measure aims to control the peach-potato aphid, the main carrier of virus yellows — the most serious disease threat facing the UK’s homegrown sugar beet industry, most of which is based in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Norfolk farmer and NFU Sugar chairman Kit Papworth said: “The forecast level of aphid pressure in 2026 is the highest the homegrown sugar beet industry has faced in the absence of highly-effective seed treatment controls since 2020.
That year, 38pc of the national crop was infected with virus yellows and 25pc of yield lost.
Some growers suffered catastrophic reductions in yield of up to 80pc as a result of the disease.
Use of the pesticide will only be permitted between May 28 and August 1, once set aphid thresholds have been reached.
More details: https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/26155217.sugar-beet-growers-secure-emergency-pesticide-authorisation/