UK beet growers are on track to doubling their yields in time to meet targets, delegates at a sugar beet conference in Cambridgeshire have heard. Growers have said they are on track to doubling their yields from 2012 to 2015 in a bid to become more competitive once sugar quotas end. They are pushing for four per cent growth each year until 2015.

A British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) spokesperson explained that meeting targets is important for British growers, as they want to remain a growing power when EU quotas are phased out, which is currently forecast for 2015; "Delivering this target will prepare the UK for the challenges ahead beyond reform of the EU sugar regime in 2015."

Speakers at the BBRO’s January briefing at Peterborough, which took place yesterday, said a novel strategy to deliver whole beets, as opposed to partial beets, to factories had also helped increase yields in the UK, consolidating the country’s place amongst the most efficient sugar producers in the EU.

The 2006 EU sugar reforms, which were brought in to level the playing field for producers in the bloc, led to a scaling back of the UK beet industry, cutting the number of processing facilities down to four and have led to the EU becoming a net importer, whereas the bloc was once one of the world’s leading sugar exporters.

Growers are forecast to see yields of around 70 tonnes per hectare this year, thanks mostly to ideal growing conditions, although some yields of up to 100 t/ha have been reported. Last year’s weather was far from clement; a bitterly cold winter saw beet freeze in the ground, then an unexpected thaw in January, in whichtemperatures rocketed to 10oC, meant many started to rot and whole fields were destroyed costing growers thousands. Britain’s four sugar factories are now averaging 18.2 per cent sugar content, up 2 per cent from last year.

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