THE closure of a sugar beet processing plant later this year will effect an Upton farmer's livelihood.

When the British Sugar processing plant in Shropshire closes, transporting crops an extra 100 miles to an alternative sugar factory in Nottinghamshire will be uneconomic for hundreds of local farmers.

Sugarbeet grower and agricultural contractor Martin Hodgetts, from Upton, said: "This factory closure will have a significant effect on all of us. Sugarbeet has been one of the few profitable crops in recent years and it helps provide work through the autumn and winter months."

"It's a crop that farmers like growing. It's spring-planted and provides a lot of employment, not just on the farms but for local hauliers and fertiliser and chemical suppliers."

He said many farmers and agricultural machinery contractors had invested heavily in recent years in very specialised equipment which would now be of no use.

"At a time when the Government want farmers to look at alternative crops with alternative uses, it seems crazy that sugarbeet growing in this area will disappear," said Mr Hodgetts.

Sugar processing produces animal feed as a byproduct and sugarbeet is also a bio-fuel.