5 September 2023

Nordzucker starts the 2023/2024 campaign well prepared

Nordzucker will start slicing sugar beet for the 2023/24 campaign on September 8 at the first of a total of twelve beet-processing factories. Beet delivery to the factories will begin one to two days before processing. The company expects the yield and sugar production across the Group to be at the average level of the past five years. Beet processing is expected to run until mid-January 2024. 

Based on the results of our test harvesting in the growing regions and further calculations, we expect an average yield and sugar production across the Group,” says Lars Gorissen, CEO Nordzucker. The cool spring with little rainfall delayed the growth of the beet after sowing. The rainfall of the past period has had a positive effect on the development of the beet but is currently leading to low sugar contents in the beet. With sunshine in the next few weeks, these can still increase significantly.

Sustainably prepared – energy saving measures implemented

The Nordzucker Group continues to focus on sustainability and aims to achieve climate-neutral production by 2050 at the latest. “Our colleagues have used the campaign-free period to implement numerous retrofitting and maintenance measures at many factories that contribute to greater energy efficiency and CO₂ savings,” explains Alexander Godow, Chief Operation Officer at Nordzucker. For example, in the Polish factories Opalenica and Chełmža, the evaporation station was expanded and additional heat exchangers were installed. Through these measures, energy is recovered, used more efficiently and thus less CO₂ is released into the environment.
In the future, Nordzucker will increasingly use renewable energies. Beet pulp, which is a residual material from sugar production, will play an important role in this. The use of part of the beet pulp for biogas production can ensure that a large part of the energy required in the future is covered. Nordzucker has also set itself sustainability goals in the areas of “Care for People” and along the entire value chain – from procurement and production to the products and their packaging.

Campaign starts with the processing of organic beet

Nordzucker extracts its first sugar this year as part of the organic beet campaign at the factory in Schladen (Germany). Nordzucker processes organically grown beet in Schladen, Nykøbing (Denmark) and Kèdainiai (Lithuania) at the beginning of each campaign. The other Nordzucker factories in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia start processing conventionally produced beet in the course of September or early October. The campaign is expected to end for the factories in January 2024. Sugar cane processing at the Australian sugar mills has already been underway since mid-June.