Nordic Sugar's Positive Forecast For This Year's Sugar Production

19 Aug 2013 --- Nordic Sugar expects a sugar output above its EU quota in 2013/14.

The year’s first sugar beet test was carried out this week in Nordic Sugar’s four production countries – Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Lithuania. Based on the test results, Nordic Sugar expects a total sugar output for 2013/14 in excess of its aggregate EU quota of 811,000 tonnes of sugar.

Beet sowing took place later than normal in most places, except in Sweden, due to a cold spring but the subsequent period saw favourable growth conditions. A warm, dry and sunny period during the first part of the summer was followed by much needed rain in August, resulting in generally healthy sugar growth.
Against this background, sugar yields close to the average for the past five years are expected in Denmark, while yields above the five-year average are forecast for Sweden and Lithuania, assuming normal weather conditions in the coming period. In Finland, high yields per hectare are expected, but as the area sown to beet here is somewhat below the optimum level this year, sugar output in Finland will probably not reach the national EU quota.

- Obviously, the late time of sowing did not give us the best start to the season, but even so, we now see that the sugar beet shows its potential as a stable crop capable of compensating for varying weather conditions during its long growing season - naturally also helped significantly by the very professional efforts of the beet growers, says Jannik Olejas, Senior Vice President, Beet Procurement.

Based on the yields forecast, production at Nordic Sugar’s factories is scheduled to start in the second half of September.

As in previous years, two additional beet tests will be performed before production start-up.