Sugar beet yield significantly lower last year

In almost the entire EU-28, the sugar beet yield in 2018 was significantly lower than in the previous year. Only Spain managed to achieve a result that is almost the same as in 2017. This was announced by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Friday 14 June.

In 2018, an average of 69.100 kilograms of sugar beet per hectare was harvested in the European Union. That is 15,2% less than in 2017. Spain has achieved the best result. Last year, an average of 87 tons of sugar beet was obtained from 1 hectare, which is 3,5% less than in 2017. The Netherlands scores relatively well compared to other countries: 76,4 tons per hectare. However, the yield is still 18% lower than in 2017.

Sugar beet yields in Germany and Poland were also significantly lower in 2018 than in 2017 (-25%). In 2018, the Polish arable farmers achieved an average of 50.700 kilos from 1 hectare and the Germans 63.300 kilos. In Greece, the drop in yield was not that bad, because there was only 2,7% less harvested per hectare.

In 2018, nearly 120 billion kilos of sugar beets harvested, which is more than 23 billion kilos less than in 2017. France was the largest producer of sugar beet last year and harvested approximately 2018 billion kilos in 39,6. The Netherlands is in fifth place and produced a harvest of 5 billion kilos in 2018. In Spain, 6,5 billion kilos were harvested.

Relatively largest area in the Netherlands
In 2018, sugar beet was grown on 1,73 million hectares. The acreage was largest in France last year: 490.000 hectares. This made the country good for 28% of the European production area. Germany follows in second place, with 414.000 hectares. If we take these 2 countries together, they owned more than half of the sugar beet production area. The Netherlands had a share of 2018% in 5.

Relatively speaking, the Netherlands had the largest area in the European Union in 2018, because sugar beet is grown on 5% of our agricultural area. On average, sugar beet was grown on 1% of the total agricultural area in the European Union (excluding Italy). In Germany and France this percentage was 2,4% and 1,7% respectively. In Spain, only 0,2% of the acreage was cultivated with sugar beet. 

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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