We pulled out all the stops to harvest the last beets

Cosun Beet Company announced today (Tuesday, January 9) that there are still 3.600 hectares of beets in the ground. That is just under 6% of the area. So a lot of clearing was done before the frost, because last week there were still 6.500 hectares. The harvesting did not happen automatically. Photos and videos of tow tractors, winches and crawler cranes to dig free the harvester have been happily sent for weeks. From misery, digging the wettest corners by hand to experiments with a stone rake on the tap are a new phenomenon and that shows how extremely wet this season is. Cosun has opened the frost damage scheme for frozen beets from January 10 to 19.

Sugar prices on the rise due to drought
Sugar has also been on the rise again on the world market in recent days. However, that does not have much to do with the problems of Dutch beet growers. Disappointing returns in India play a much more important role. The Indian Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills announced last week that 1 million tonnes of sugar was produced in the country from October 31 to December 11,2. That is 7,6% less than in the same period last year. It is no surprise that sugar production in India is lower. The monsoon was drier than normal and that almost always costs sugar cane yields. The same problem also exists in Thailand, another major player in sugar on the world market. In Brazil, sugar production this season until mid-December is approximately 25% higher compared to last season, but that is not enough to compensate for the setback in Asia. Indonesia has increased its sugar import quota by 1,17 million tons compared to last season. That gives the sugar market some extra support.

Sugar was on the rise on both the London and New York futures markets. Sugar No. 11 in New York showed a slightly stronger increase, but on both exchanges sugar is at the highest level in two weeks.