Ingredients company Danisco reports this week that the result of its 2001 beet campaign is satisfactory. Total sugar output reached 1,246,000 tonnes, close to the record-high production of 1,345,000 tonnes achieved in 2000, which was a year with highly favourable weather conditions.
Production at Danisco's sugar factories in the four EU countries Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Germany yielded a total output that was approximately 10 per cent above the countries' respective EU quotas. In Lithuania, output was nearly on a par with the factories' national quotas.
The sugar content has been below normal standards, but the volume of beets was larger - the main reason being favourable weather conditions during the last part of the growing season. This resulted in a large sugar production on a par with the forecast based on field samples made in September 2001, and as stated in Danisco's announcement of results for the second quarter 2001/02.
The Danish company boasts that production was highly efficient at all factories and a number of factories reached record-high levels.
Executive Vice President, COO, Mogens Granborg said:'We've reached the efficiency targets set for the new production structure, which was finally in place by the completion of the expansion of örtofta Sugar Factory in Sweden just before the start of this year's campaign.'
However the results show that production at all factories fell from 2000 to 2001. In Denmark, production at the three factories reached 479,000 tonnes of sugar against 533,000 tonnes in 2000. The sugar yield amounted to 9.1 tonnes/ha against 9.7 tonnes/ha in 2000. The beet campaign started on 2 October and ended on 13 January 2002.
In Sweden, 402,000 tonnes of sugar were recorded against 412,000 tonnes in 2000. The sugar yield amounted to 8.1 tonnes/ha against 8.3 tonnes/ha in 2000. The beet campaign started on 18 September and ended on 3 January 2002.
In Finland, production at the two factories reached 146,000 tonnes of sugar (153,000 tonnes in 2000). The sugar yield amounted to 5.5 tonnes/ha, largely unchanged from that of 2000. The beet campaign started on 25 September and ended on 18 December and in Germany, production fell slightly. 132,000 tonnes of sugar were produced in comparison to142,000 tonnes in 2000.