Portrait
The leaves of the sugar beet plant are its 'chemical laboratory' where it makes the sugar that is stored in its root. Seeds are sown in March and the harvest (or 'campaign') lasts from mid-September to end-December. Beets are weighed and sampled to assess their sugar content in order to calculate the payment to the farmer. They are then cut into thin strips and passed through a current of hot water to extract the sugar. The resulting liquid is purified and filtered and then concentrated into syrup form by evaporation: with a sugar content of 65% it is then boiled under vacuum to trigger crystallisation. The cooked mass is then passed to a centrifuge to remove liquid and retain crystallised white sugar.
Products
Sugar: sugar beet and sugarcane are the two main sources of sucrose worldwide. Sugar refined from beet is sold to consumers, wholesalers and also to industry.
Alcohol: is produced by fermenting beet juice or low purity syrups. The product is then rectified to produce highly pure alcohol or rectified and dehydrated to produce pure alcohol.
Pulp: the fibrous by-product of the juice extraction process is used as animal feed.
Yield
80 t/ha of sugar beet on average, producing around 13 t/ha of sugar, or 1.3 kg of sugar per square metre. One tonne of beet produces an average of 90 to 100 litres of alcohol. France is the world's leading producer of sugar from beet.The group
Tereos' co-operative members produced 172,000 ha of sugar beet in France in 2009.Across Europe, 200,000 ha of beet was processed to supply retailers (traditional and speciality sugars) and industry (crystallised sugars, liquid sugars, fondants and fructo-oligosaccharides).
