Cosun Beet Company has started processing the sugar beet. This marks the start of the campaign that will take approximately 17 weeks to complete. Factories are also starting up slowly in other European processors. In terms of yield, the harvest starts on a more positive note than has been the case in the last 3 seasons.
Emergence problems, feeding damage, drought, yellowing disease and so on. European sugar beet cultivation has had a lot of challenges over the last 3 growing seasons. This season the cards are shuffled differently. There have also been issues, but considerably fewer.
Sugar yield slightly below average
Cosun Beet Company processed the first beets in Hoogkerk and Dinteloord today (Monday, September 13). The German factory in Anklam has been running for a week. The cooperative currently calculates an average beet yield of 81 tons per hectare. This amounts to a sugar yield of 13,6 tons per hectare. These figures are slightly below the 5-year average. This may turn out differently during the campaign.
Growers are very curious about the content and yield. Due to the dark weather in August, the sugar content is expected to be low. Fortunately, the beets were still able to get some sunlight at the beginning of September.
8% higher yield
Südzucker's most recent yield forecast is 85 tons per hectare. That is 8% more than the 5-year average. Especially because there has been no drought this season. In Bavaria the average yield is even 90 tons per hectare. A sugar forecast has not yet been made. It is noted that the crops are healthy.
Südzucker first starts processing organic sugar beets. That campaign started on September 8. Normal processing begins on September 14 and will continue until mid-January. Nordzucker started with the organic beets on September 10. The regular beets will also be processed there this week. This also applies to the company's factories in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.
Nordzucker assumes a slightly lower average sugar content than last year and an average carrot yield. Last season, 2,7 million tons of sugar was extracted by the company. Pfeifer & Langen, the third German beet processor, will start the campaign a little later. This starts on September 20 and early October, depending on the location. The company also still has clean-up work to be done. These were created by enormous flooding.
French beet growers are coming out of a difficult season. The yellowing virus severely affected production last year, as did drought. Revenues plummeted dramatically level. There were also problems this spring. A period of night frost destroyed several tens of thousands of hectares. This summer it turned out that some plots had to be destroyed because banned herbicides had been sprayed. This concerns half a million tons of beets in Northern France. That is 1,5% of the total French production.
10 days of sun too little
Thanks to a summer with little sun and a lot of rain, the French estimate the sugar yield to be significantly lower. 8% less than the 5-year average in all growing areas. Beet growers' organization CGB reports that a total of 10 days of shortage of sunshine hours were counted in July and August. Due to the wet weather, the mold pressure is also higher than usual. The processors Cristal Union and Tereos will start their campaigns in mid-September.
This reporting can largely also be found in Belgium. There, the Confederation of Belgian Beet Planters (CBB) calculates an average hectare yield of 14 tons of sugar. In recent years this has been between 15 and 17 tons. Belgian growers, around 6000 in total, are mainly concerned with the yield of cultivation. With the lower sugar content, the bottom line yield is still low. Things have been going wrong at Tiense Suiker (owned by Südzucker) for 4 years. Improvement has been promised for 2022, but pricing remains opaque.
Flexibility required
The first British factory will open its doors for this campaign on September 16. The last will follow on October 12. British Sugar is asking growers for more flexibility regarding delivery dates and factories, despite a 10% decline in acreage. The additional costs will be reimbursed by the company. In the United Kingdom, the debate is mainly between cane sugar and beet sugar. The country has a strong sugar industry that runs on imported cane sugar. It is often cheaper, but is produced under different conditions, say advocates of beet sugar. In the past, beet cultivation was protected by European legislation. After Brexit, that protection has disappeared and the sector has to compete more fiercely.
Positive figures come from Poland – the third largest sugar producer in the EU – despite a decreased area. Growers' organization KZPBC calculates 2,2 million tons of sugar compared to 1,98 million tons last year. Thanks to the weather, the sugar content here is also lower than average.
Price doubled
In all cases, European countries hope for a higher one sugar price ultimately makes up for part of the lower yield. Pricing has made a big jump this season. In one year, the monthly price in London has increased by almost €100 to over €400 per tonne of refined white sugar. This triggers pricing instruments that some European processors have incorporated into their contracts.