EU beet boom as sugar quotas to go
Tillage farmers’ dreams of reviving the Irish sugar industry may have missed the boat, as plans emerge for major sugar beet increases in the UK and France.
The rise in EU beet sowings is estimated at 15%, but Associated British Foods, the sole processor of UK beet for sugar, said the area it has contracted with farmers for growing sugar beet has increased by a third for 2017-18.
The increases are timed to take advantage of the EU scrapping sugar output quotas next October, which will remove the current EU production limits.
France’s Tereos, the world’s third largest sugar producer, expects its sugar beet processing volume to rise by 25% in 2017-18.
France’s Cristal Union has estimated its growers increased sowings this year by 25%.
The UK imports about 1m tonnes of sugar per year, including about 400,000t of white sugar from the EU, mainly from France.
But Brexit will offer UK farmers the opportunity to replace some of the imports.
Hence the signs of expansion of the UK beet industry, now concentrated in the East Anglia arable farming region after decades of sugar beet acreage shrinkage.
Growers are also encouraged by Al Khaleej International from the United Arab Emirates submitting plans for the first new sugar beet factory in the UK for 90 years, in Yorkshire.
The flood of extra sugar beet production across the EU is likely to reduce the feasibility of establishing a new Irish sugar and bioethanol production facility, using Irish sugar beet.
Greencore, the holder of the entire Irish sugar quota, availed of an EU voluntary restructuring scheme in 2006, dismantling its facilities and ceasing production.
Ireland secured €353 million in this scheme, of which €220m went to beet growers, €127m to Greencore, and €6m to machinery contractors.
Two groups interested in reviving the industry here indicated capital costs involved could range from €250m to €400m.
“It is now up to those interested parties to move the project forward and to garner sufficient commercial and financial support to turn their plans into a viable reality,” said Agriculture Minister Michael Creed recently. However, there has been no sign among Irish promoters of renewed interest in re-establishing an Irish sugar industry, despite the opening offered by the scrapping of EU quotas.
