Home > Research > Production chains > Sugar beet

Sugar beet

Currently, about thirty per cent of the world’s supply of sugar (sucrose) is derived from sugar beet, almost all of which is produced in the Northern Hemisphere. Sugar beet is a root vegetable, which stores sucrose in its root during the first year of growth. There is no difference between the end products of beet and cane sugar, which are both called white sugar.

Did you know…

  • Sugar beet originally comes from the Mediterranean where it was a coastal plant. It grows best in a temperate climate;

  • Sugar beet is now grown in more than 50 countries, of which half are members of the European Union;
  • Sugar beet product was stimulated by Napoleon when Britain cut off mainland Europe from sugar cane import from the colonies, in the early 19th century?

Most important export countries

  1. Netherlands
  2. Azerbaijan
  3. Hungary
  4. Serbia
  5. Belarus

Most important production countries

  1. France
  2. United States of America
  3. Russian Federation
  4. Germany
  5. Ukraine

Production chain

Sugar cane and sugar beet have different processing techniques. Most sugar beet production can be found in the European Union, the United States and Central Asia. This is due to the fact that sugar beets have a better yield when they are grown in temperate conditions. The sugar beet is a biennial plant (takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle), and only stores sucrose in its root during the first year of growth. In addition, sugar beets are rotated with other crops in a cycle of three to five years. The percentage of sucrose in sugar beet is higher than that in sugar cane, respectively seventeen and ten percent. Despite this difference, sugar cane can produce higher yield per hectare because it is often planted as a monoculture.

Problems

Unsustainable use of water is an issue in sugar beet cultivation, in which over-irrigation may take place. Soil erosion and the use of herbicides are also issues that play a role. Fields that are left fallow after the harvest are prone to wind erosion and soil is lost during harvesting. As sugar beet is a root vegetable which needs to be dug up, up to ten percent of the harvest consists of soil. Furthermore, sugar beet is prone to diseases, which make the heavy use of herbicides necessary; this can cause soil degradation as well as water pollution. A major issue in the sugar sector is the degree of market distortion created by the European Union, but also by the United States, through high subsidies and import quota and tariffs. This system was intended to protect domestic sugar beet producers from cheap sugar cane imports. Despite reforms in the European Union’s sugar regime in 2006, market distortion is still an issue. Imports into the European Union might have been made easier for some countries, but others still face high tariffs and quotas. The system of subsidies in the European Union has not been abandoned either, nor in the United States. This means international competition in the sugar industry is still on an unequal footing, to the advantage of sugar beet producers in the European Union and the United States.

Major Chain Issues

In the sugar beet sector, Fairfood International has identified the following major chain issues:

Major chain Production stage
Harmful Agricultural Practices Production
Unfair Import Tariffs and Quotas Outside the Chain
Market Distorting Subsidies Outside the Chain
Water Mismanagement and Contamination Production

Solutions

The guide below shows certification schemes whose standards indicate a match with some or all of Fairfood’s researched major issues for this commodity. To learn more about the schemes, click on their logo.


Global Gap
EU Organic Labels

Production
Production
Customised sustainability initiatives
In addition to making use of standards and certification schemes, major issues in this commodity could also be addressed in a customised manner. The box below outlines a few examples of initiatives that deal with sustainability issues in this particular sector. Companies could join some of the platforms or roundtables mentioned below. These could serve as a stepping stone to increased sustainability. Other initiatives, in the form of corporate programmes and chain partnerships, could serve as inspiration for replication by other companies within the sector. To learn more about any of the initiatives, click on their logo. 

Chain Partnership
 The Sugar Beet Drip Irrigation Project was implemented by the Kayseri Cooperative, a community-based organisation of farmers and technical experts in Kayseri, Turkey, in 2006. The main goal of the project, supported by the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, was to conserve soil, water, and the wetlands in Kayseri with sustainable agricultural practices. The project managed to reduce water consumption by 70-80 percent while increasing the yield of sugar beets by 3-28 percent on 1500 hectares of land.