Beetroot production sliced by cannery collapse

Australians may have to suffer hamburgers with no beetroot for the rest of the year.

The sell-off of the last wholly Australian-owned cannery, Windsor Farm Foods at Cowra in central western NSW, has caused a shortage of processed beetroot which could last until January.

Grower Ed Fagan is ploughing part of his 4,000 tonne crop into the ground this week, and says supermarkets are in short supply.

"They're desperate for the beetroot," he said.

"We're desperate to sell it, they're desperate to buy it, but there is no one to process it.

"The beetroot that we eat is a sweet beetroot, it's pickled in a sweet brine. The stuff out of Europe and out of America is in more of a sauerkraut brine, more of a tart brine.

"So [the supermarkets] can't just go, 'we'll grab that', because it's a different beetroot."

The closure of a Cowra cannery will leave supermarkets struggling to meet demand for beetroot, possibly into 2014.

Source: ABC News, 24 April 2013