Germany produced 3.442 million tonnes of refined sugar in the 2010-11 season which has just ended, down from 4.207 million tonnes in 2009/10, the association of German sugar producers WVZ said on Monday. A fall had been expected because of poor weather which reduced beet sugar content.
Sugar content of beets delivered to German refineries in the season fell to 17.27 percent against 18.15 percent in the previous season, the WVZ said. German sugar beets had suffered from a heatwave early in summer 2010 and later rain had not been enough to enable the plants to recover. Beet yield per hectare fell 8.6 percent on the year to 65.1 tonnes, it said.
German farmers had cut sugar beet plantings by 5.3 percent on the year to 344,820 hectares and beets delivered to refineries fell 13.4 percent to 22.44 million tonnes, it said. Along with 229,000 tonnes of unsold sugar from last season, output of 3.442 million tonnes is well above Germany's EU season sugar production quota of 2.89 million tonnes.