The first week of the beet campaign has gone smoothly in warm and sunny late summer weather. The yields and sugar contents of the first delivered beets vary widely. This is in line with the expectations of Cosun Beet Company.
The harvesting of sugar beet started well last week after a rainy week in early September. Especially in the traditionally early delivery areas, quite a few beet have already been harvested. Due to the strong spread in drilling dates this spring, the cooperative has adjusted its delivery schedule. In the southeast of Brabant, no beets have been harvested yet because they were sown very late.
Yield unchanged
Exact figures regarding the yields and sugar contents are not yet available, according to Job Jan Simmelink, central agro manager at Cosun. These will be released later this week. However, he can say that they are "in line with expectations" of the previously mentioned 13 tons of sugar per hectare. The processor expects an average yield of 79 tons per hectare, resulting in 7.1 million tons of beet.
Sugar beet was sown in March but also as late as June. There were instances of localized waterlogging, leading to some areas needing to be resown. This has resulted in a very wide spread this year. Farmers and contractors who have already been out with their harvesters have reported this. There was a relatively high amount of harvesting last week, considering the expected rainfall this week, which beet growers did not want to wait for.
Smooth start
The start-up of both factories, in Groningen and Dinteloord, went well according to Simmelink. Due to the nice weather, there was a sufficient backlog of work. In the last two years, especially the Groningen factory had been plagued by major and minor malfunctions.
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