AVERAGE SUGAR content continues to rise in the national beet crop, bucking the normal late-season decline, topping 17.5% last week.

“It has been a remarkable campaign. We have never before seen sugars rising in January at all factories,” says BS”s Wissington-based Mark Culloden.

“Last week we recorded the highest average for the current campaign at 17.64%, beating the previous record set the week before, and there is no sign of any tailing off. As well as high sugars, dirt tares in December and January have also been waydown.

” The East Anglian factories are having a good run. Wissington”s average daily slice is up 800t on last year.