News Sugar beets
Belgian beet factory does not have finances in place
The intended cooperative sugar beet factory in Seneffe, Belgium, has not yet secured the finances, which means that construction cannot start. An additional €4 million is needed to provide the project with sufficient financial support.
More than €50 million is required to take the plans to the next level. Ultimately, the cooperative hopes to build a factory in Seneffe, near Charleroi. In order to obtain financing, shares are now being issued to beet growers. On January 31 of this year, the counter stood at €39 million, with a further €6,9 million raised in the next tranche. In short: there is still €4,1 million to be raised.
Money and beets required
"At the end of June, the CoBT, the beet growers' cooperative that wants to build the factory, will decide whether the project will go ahead or be cancelled", tells Benoit Haag, the project coordinator and spokesperson. So we still have more than 2 months to study the plans and to try to get the picture conclusive. The Hague cannot yet say whether there will be a new issuance round. In addition, more hectares of sugar beet are also needed to run the factory profitably.
This project requires an investment of €2022 million up to and including 326,7. The target capacity is 14.000 tons of beets per day and a campaign of 115 days. This amounts to approximately 1.250 growers in Belgium and France. According to Haag, involved growers also remain positive about having their 'own' factory, which hopefully can pay a profitable price for the sugar beet.
Construction should start this year
Already at the beginning of this year pale that it would be quite a struggle to raise the necessary financial resources, and that while construction should start this year. In this way, the factory can become operational in 2021.
Niels van der Boom
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