114.000 hectares of growth
France has a thousand new beet growers
The French organization for sugar beet growers, CGB, has been able to significantly expand their membership base in one fell swoop. Due to an explosive increase in the beet acreage, more than 1.000 new growers have registered. This mainly concerns companies that had previously (forced) shut down.
The Confédération Générale des Planteurs de Bettraves (CGB) reports that the membership base has not expanded so extremely in 50 years. More than 1.000 beet growers have joined the representative. Not so strange, because the French beet processors pay for the membership. The stand organization has been in existence since 1921 and covers 14 departments in the country. It does not say how many members it has in total. The country had 26.000 beet growers last year.
Cultivation restarted
In 2008, when the European sugar market was reformed, many growers stopped producing sugar beets. Farmers were also forced to stop because they were too far from the factory and transport costs were too high. Those growers are now largely re-membering.
French sugar beet cultivation in numbers:
- About 27.000 growers
- 480.000 hectares of sugar beets. In 2017, 114.000 hectares will be added (European Union forecast).
- Average sugar yield 13 tons per hectare
- Annual domestic consumption is 2,8 million tons of sugar
- 1,4 million tons for sugar exports
- 8 beet processors and 22 sugar processors
- French colonies also grow cane sugar
Better balance
Due to the disappearance of the sugar quota, old growers are happy to pick up the crop again. It is a welcome change from the cereals, where the price level is also very low. Sugar beets provide a nice addition to the balance and hopefully they can be made more resilient in a volatile market.
114
thousand
Biggest grower
Based on an initial forecast, the beet acreage in the European Union will increase by 17,3 percent this year. Good for a plus of 245.000 hectares, to a total of 1,66 million hectares. France has the biggest piece of the pie. The country is expanding 114.000 hectares. This is partly due to the new growers. With an area of almost half a million hectares, France is the largest beet producer in the EU, with one of the highest sugar yields. On average 13 tons per hectare. By way of comparison: for the Netherlands, the EU assumes 84.500 hectares.
Niels van der Boom
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