Sugar beet loses its sweetness in EU as glut forces farmers to look elsewhere
London — Sugar production in the EU could drop sharply in 2019/2020 as farmers consider slashing plantings and switching to other crops amid depressed prices, industry participants said on Tuesday. European producers are not planting extra beet area and some are turning to other crops offering better returns, Martin Todd, managing director at LMC International, told the International Sugar Organisation’s annual seminar in London. “Growers are finding beet is no longer the attractive crop it always was,” Todd told attendees. The ISO has forecast the EU will produce 17.9-million tons of sugar in the 2018/2019 season, down from 19.7-million in the previous season. The intergovernmental body has not yet issued a forecast for 2019/2020. Historically, farmers typically planted extra area to ensure they were able to meet their contracts with processors if weather conditions dented their crop. “You’ve seen people tighten up on area to deliver as near to contract as possible,” said Michael S...
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