News Sugar beets
French campaign shortened due to smaller harvest
The French sugar beet campaign has an average length this year due to a smaller beet harvest. Yields are estimated to be below the 5-year average. Most beet plots are performing better than they were a year ago.
The sugar beet campaign in France is expected to last 110 days this autumn, the association of beet growers (CGB) tells Le Betteravier† The yield is estimated by CGB at 83 tons per hectare with 16% sugar. This is apparent from our own trial harvesting figures. The 5-year average is 83,5 tons per hectare with 16% sugar.
Average campaign
The yield is better compared to 2018. Then the yield was 82 tons. The sugar beet acreage in France is 451.000 hectares, which means that the campaign will last 110 days, according to CGB. Depending on the weather in the coming weeks, another 3 tons can grow, CGB estimates.
Thanks to rain in August, the crops have been refreshed after a dry and hot period. "From the line from Caen to Reims, the plots get better and better the further north you go," says Ghislain Malatestat of CGB. In the central region of France it is much drier. Crops cannot recover here, even when there is still enough rain. In the Champagne arable region, yields are variable and there is more optimism. Some leaves have died, but the problems are not as big as last year. In the southern part, around Lyon, there is talk of a catastrophically bad harvest.
Exotic Plague
Beet growers in the south of France face another problem. The exotic palm weevil (Rhynchophorus) is advancing further and further north. The animal can cause great damage and has been found in the country since 2015.
Niels van der Boom
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