Nordzucker Campaigns Affected by Extreme Weather Conditions

The results in the Central Europe and Northern Europe regions were slightly below average but still satisfactory given the highly erratic weather conditions.

1/31/2011 --- Nordzucker has reported that changeable weather with extreme conditions typified the 2010/11 beet year from sowing to processing in all regions. As the last factory across the Group, the Danish sugar factory in Nakskov finished processing on 25 January 2011 after 118 campaign days. The results in the Central Europe and Northern Europe regions were slightly below average but still satisfactory given the highly erratic weather conditions. The Nordzucker Group has its headquarters in Braunschweig and is Europe’s second largest sugar producer. It also produces bioethanol and animal feed from sugar beet.

Around 14.3 million tonnes of beet were processed around the clock in the 13 sugar factories. “We had to cope with difficult weather conditions everywhere from the start of the campaign until the last day. We mastered the challenges for the workforce and the equipment by all pulling together. It was a fantastic achievement,” underlined Chief Production Officer Axel Aumüller.

After sowing relatively late in the season, the plants then had to cope with an unusually cold, and in some regions very wet, May. This resulted in restricted growth and late ground coverage. During the summer, the unusually hot temperatures in July in particular, and the shortage of rain, harvesting period was hampered in all regions by long and heavy rainfall, the transition from November to December brought frost and snow which lasted until the end of the campaign.

The farmers and the transport companies in particular had to master some special logistics challenges. “By working together, and adapting the concepts, we were able to process our beet right through to the end,” emphasised Chief Agricultural Officer Dr. Niels Pörksen. “And in addition, the sugar beet itself showed its qualities, because despite a very difficult year for cultivation with suboptimal conditions, the crop still managed to produce good yields.”

Central Europe Region
After 121 campaign days, the factory in Uelzen ended processing on 15 January 2011 – the last factory to end the sugar beet campaign in north and east Germany. 7.5 million (8.5) tonnes of beet were processed. The sugar yield of 10.1 (12.6) tonnes per hectare was slightly below average.

Northern Europe Region /Nordic Sugar
A sugar yield of 10.3 tonnes per hectare (12.6) was achieved in Denmark. The last beet were not harvested and processed until January – after a thaw. The campaign in Sweden ended at the beginning of January with a sugar yield of 8.9 tonnes per hectare (10.6). Lithuania and Finland had already ended their campaigns in 2010, and reported average sugar yields for the regions of 7.6 (8.1) and 6.3 (6.4) tonnes per hectare respectively.

Eastern Europe Region
Despite the extreme weather, with flooding in May and lengthy periods of precipitation during the campaign, Poland and Slovakia brought in satisfactory harvests with sugar yields of 9.6 (10.5) and 9.8 (10.2) tonnes per hectare – exceeding the long term averages in both countries. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of everyone involved, all of the beet was successfully harvested, transported to the factories, and processed, despite the extremely harsh winter conditions.