Beet acreage has grown considerably last year

The beet acreage in the EU-28 increased to 2017 hectares in 1.740.000. This means that the acreage is 16,3% larger than in 2016. According to a report from the European Commission.

The beet acreage has not only grown compared to 2016, but is also 9,1% above the average of the past 5 years. In addition, the acreage is more than 5% larger than in 2013.

Creating new opportunities
The acreage has grown mainly in the competing regions, such as France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. These countries want to create new opportunities in the market in this way, before the sugar quota is abolished on 1 October 2017. The countries that are non-competitive usually score equal to the average of the past 5 years. 

Although it is still much too early to predict total sugar beet production for the 2017-2018 season, the coming weeks will be crucial. The European Commission predicts a yield of 73,44 tons per hectare. That is 2,8% higher than in 2016 and 3,8% higher than the five-year average. 

Sugar production expected higher
The European Commission expects sugar production to reach 2017 million tons in the 2018-20,1 season. That is 20% more than last year. However, this is only 3% higher than in 2014-2015. 

Sugar imports are expected to drop to 1,5 million tons. That is 49% lower than in 2016-2017. This will mainly have to do with the alignment of European prices with the prices of the world market. The Commission does expect sugar exports to double. 

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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