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Streamline or bust, beet growers told

- 17 October 2001
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17 October 2001



‘Streamline or bust’, beet growers told

By Charles Abel

SUGAR-BEET growers have been warned that they must boost yields and slash production costs to stave off the threat from imports.


Growers at the Beet UK event in Norfolk were urged to lift their yields by 20% and cut costs by 20% to combat imports expected after 2006.

An extra 2 million tonnes of sugar is expected to arrive in the European Union from developing countries under the Everything But Arms agreement.

Crop values are forecast to slump, said Karl Carter, British Sugars operations director on Wednesday (17 October).

“In the past five years we have only achieved half that progress, so we have got to double the effort and double the result,” he said.

“If we do not, we are going to have real profitability issues in 2006.”

Expanding upon British Sugars “20:20 Vision”, he said new varieties would help lift yield, provided they are taken up quickly.

Earlier drilling, leaving turning headlands unplanted, better harvesting and better clamping would also help.

A British Sugar profitability initiative has shown potential for lower costs, said Mr Carter, with harvesting costs offering scope for savings.

Some of the 300 growers involved in the initiative spend significantly less than 800/ha, compared with an industry average of over 1000/ha.

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