Sugar Beet Campaign: Efficient Processing After a Challenging Growing Season
The sugar beet campaign has gone well in terms of processing at the factories after a challenging growing season with heavy rainfall at the beginning and drought at the end. The last sugar beets have now been processed at both the Dinteloord and Hoogkerk factories. Our German factory in Anklam will conclude the campaign slightly later, around 10 February. While we processed over 6.6 million tonnes of beets in total over the past few months, we also made strides in energy savings and futureproofing.
Yields and Results
The total yield of 75 tonnes of beets per hectare with 16.3% sugar resulted in an average sugar yield of 12.2 tonnes per hectare. This sugar yield is significantly lower than the five-year average of 13.8 tonnes of sugar per hectare. The campaign lasted 125 days this year, shorter than last year's 138 days.
Exceptional Start to the Season
The season started exceptionally wet, making sowing difficult. In some areas of the Netherlands, particularly in the southeast, some fields could not be sown at all. In other areas, sowing had to be delayed for a long time. Instead of the usual 3 weeks in March/April, some growers could only sow their last beets after 3.5 months this season.
In consultation with the involved growers, we adjusted the schedules for delivering the beets to the factories. This ensured a constant supply of sugar beets to the factories.
Due to this difficult start and the damage from leaf fungus during the campaign, there were large differences in and between the fields where the beets developed. This also contributed to a lower average sugar content in the beets compared to the five-year average.
Future-Proof
Cosun continuously supports growers with cultivation advice and innovation opportunities to remain successful now and in the future. Meanwhile, the IRS, the knowledge and research centre for sugar beet cultivation, is conducting research on, among other things, leaf health of varieties. On the production side, we are also working hard on futureproofing. For example, we have started building additional thick juice tanks. This increases the storage capacity of thick juice, allowing us to produce sugar year-round. This also creates opportunities to make our production process even more energy-efficient in the near future.