AGRANA reviews sugar beet campaign 2019|20
Date: 20.01.2020Sugar production volume amounts to around 650,000 tonnes (of which 300,000 tonnes in Austria)
Following the conclusion of beet processing at its Opava facility (CZ) at the weekend, AGRANA has successfully completed the 2019|20 sugar beet campaign at all seven of its beet sugar processing plants in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. In total, AGRANA produced around 650,000 tonnes of sugar from 4.6 million tonnes (prior year: 5.1 million tonnes) of sugar beet in a processing period spanning up to 116 days.
In Austria, an area of around 28,000 hectares was harvested to produce 300,000 tonnes of sugar from approximately 2.0 million tonnes of sugar beet (prior year: 2.1 million tonnes). The damage to the beet caused by the severe drought in certain regions in late summer as well as serious infestations in nearly all growing regions had a particularly dramatic impact and accounted for the lower sugar contents.
The yield per hectare in all production countries covering an area of around 76,000 hectares amounted to an average of 61 tonnes. While the yield of 72 tonnes per hectare in Austria was above average, the very different growing conditions led to a high degree of variation in terms of yields in the various growing regions.
About AGRANA
AGRANA converts agricultural raw materials into high-quality foods and numerous industrial intermediate products. Around 9,500 employees at 57 production sites worldwide generate annual Group revenue of approximately € 2.4 billion. Established in 1988, the company is the world’s market leader in fruit preparations and the leading producer of fruit juice concentrates in Europe. In addition, its Starch segment is also a major manufacturer of custom starch products and bioethanol. AGRANA today is also the leading sugar producer in Central and Eastern Europe.