Cristal Union results
French beet campaign breaks all records
Cristal Union, one of the largest sugar beet processors in France, has completed its best campaign ever. About 1 factories have jointly processed 10 million tons of beets, yielding 17 million tons of sugar and 2 liters of ethanol.
The beet area as well as the hectare yield, sugar contents and processing are breaking records Crystal Union. The cooperative was founded in 2000 and is a merger of 4 French beet cooperatives. This makes it one of the largest in the country. It also owns an Italian sugar producer: Eridania. Cristal Union is number 1 in France, after Tereos Group, and number 2 in Europe.
30
percent
More beets
Cristal Union presented its annual report on Monday, January 29, after the beet campaign ended. The 10 factories jointly received more than 17 million tons of beets, an increase of 30% compared to the previous campaign. The area increased to 2017 hectares in 180.000, a comparable increase to the previous campaign. On average, the growers achieve a carrot yield of 96 tons per hectare across the entire group. The sugar content is on average 16%.
There are major differences per factory. For example, the factory in Fontaine-le-Dun in Normandy produces an average of 104 tons per hectare, at 18% sugar. The campaign lasted an average of 125 days. That is 2 weeks longer than last year. Fontaine-le-Dun had the longest campaign: 150 days. Beets were processed from early September to February 5.
Processing Capacity
The average processing capacity is 135.000 tons per day for the entire group. The top was 141.000 tons. A number of factories scored records of 27.000 tons and 24.000 tons per day. In the 2017/2018 marketing season, Cristal Union is expected to produce 2 million tons of sugar, 800.000 tons of animal feed (beet pulp, alfalfa and grain) and 650.000 tons of ethanol. For comparison: Cosun's 2 factories recently achieved a processing capacity of 28.000 to 29.000 tons per day.
Investments
In order to gain a stronger position in the free European sugar market, the group invested heavily in 2017. For example, the production capacity of ethanol and animal feed has been increased. More storage capacity for sugar and sugar syrup has also been created. In addition, 2 logistics centers have been put into use, where bulk can be received and subsequently stored in big bags. This industrial sugar can be exported via new rail connections.
The cooperative also tries to anticipate longer campaigns. For example, the storage capacity of beets has been increased on one factory site and experiments are being conducted with long-term storage. Both the early delivery premium and the storage fee have been significantly increased, in order to spread the volume of beets over a longer period. This was successful in 1.
Organic sugar
Cristal Union will start growing organic sugar beets in 2018. South of Paris, 100 hectares of organic beets are being grown on a trial basis to see whether there is sufficient interest in organically produced sugar. A market survey for this was already carried out in 2017.
Niels van der Boom
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