British Sugar’s factories processed over 8 mt of sugar beets
The 2023/24 sugar beet campaign finally concluded, later than usual, with the Cantley factory slicing the last sugar beet of the campaign on Friday 19th April.
It is reported by farmersguide.co.uk.
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. This was the record-breaking result of one of the longest sugar beet campaigns in history, totalling 228 days.
British Sugar says 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.