The 2023/24 sugar beet campaign has finally concluded with Cantley slicing the last sugar beet on Friday 19 April. British Sugar's four
factories processed over eight million tonnes of sugar beet during the campaign from September 2023 through to April 2024, producing
approximately 1.1 million tonnes of sugar. The record-breaking campaign was one of the longest sugar beet campaigns in history, totalling 228
days.

All four factories performed well with many records broken; Wissington experienced it's second largest campaign with over 3.1 million tonnes of
beet processed, Newark is thought to have experienced the longest sugar beet campaign in Europe totalling 217 days, and Bury St Edmunds achieved
a record for maintaining a premium slice rate over a period of 69 days versus 66 days in the previous year. Recent investment in energy
efficiency technology at Wissington with the commissioning of a £17.5mn new evaporator in Autumn 2023, saw scope 1 CO2e emissions reduce by 25%
during this Campaign.

Dan Green, Agriculture Director for British Sugar comments: _"We have just concluded one of our longest ever campaigns. It has been
challenging for the whole industry given the amount of rainfall this winter and we want to recognise the effort our growers, harvesting
contractors and hauliers have made to deliver this year's crop into our factories. We are delighted with how well the factories have run over
the campaign, showing that the investments we continue to make as a business ensure we are one of the most efficient processors of beet in
Europe."_


_Helping our growers_

As part of a multi-million-pound grower support package, British Sugar announced it was decreasing slice rates at its factories to slow down
throughput, allowing growers more time to lift and deliver their beet crop. In addition, a supplementary boiler was hired and commissioned at
its Cantley factory, and the business offered to meet 75% of additional costs for Bury and Wissington growers to divert their beet to Cantley or
Newark once their closest factory had shut.

_Looking ahead_

With the 23/24 Campaign finished, heads turn to the 24/25 campaign. Dan Green continues: _"This is the fourth year in a row where we have seen
drilling take place during mid-Spring. As of this week, we are over 85% of growing area drilled with sugar beet seed and we expect all crop to
be sown by the end of April. _

_"I am optimistic about the coming season despite the higher Aphid pressure we are seeing this year and obvious concern over potential
levels of Virus Yellows. The crop area will be over 100,000 hectares, slightly ahead of last year. Providing we have some favourable weather
during the summer, we expect to see some good crops, good yields and some good margins for our growers. This should encourage further
investment in the industry, which is what we all want for the long-term."_

British Sugar has some ambitious investment plans over the coming years at each of its four factories and its customer supply site at Bury St
Edmunds. These include:

     * Steam drying investment at Wissington will hopefully be commissioned for the 26/27 Campaign with the potential to reduce site CO2e emissions
by a further 50,000 tonnes per annum
    * New evaporators at Bury St Edmunds pre-silo to remove 20,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions ready for the 25/26 Campaign
    * Investments into CHP and water treatment plants at Cantley
    * A new turbine for Newark, and the new water treatment plant is now fully operational
    * Final investment underway at the Bury St Edmunds customer supply site for the retail bagging operations