Germany's sugar beet harvesting is expected to start in the coming days and a smaller crop is expected after last year's record output, the head of the country's sugar industry association WVZ said on Friday. "German beet output is expected to be down this season with a reduced planted area but it must be remembered that last year was a record crop so a reduction would be expected," said WVZ Chief Executive Guenter Tissen.
Harvesting is expected to start at around the normal time, with the first German refinery scheduled to start processing on September 16, he said. Germany, generally the EU's second-largest sugar producer after France, will harvest 20.16 million tonnes of sugar beet for local processing, down about 7.4 million tonnes from last season, the WVZ estimates.
German farmers have planted 289,000 hectares of sugar beet for this year's harvest, down about 67,000 hectares from last season. Beet yields per hectare are expected to fall to 69.8 tonnes from 76.9 tonnes last year. But beet sugar content is expected to be little changed at 17.8 percent. "Weather conditions were difficult this year with cold weather interrupting sowings," Tissen said. "Beets also suffered from a long period of hot dry weather in summer, especially in southern Germany."