Netherlands: Limited beet regrowth reduces yield, 10 percent less

Anyone driving through the Netherlands and looking around carefully will see more and more sugar beets with spots or where the leaves have been completely affected by leaf mold. 'The pressure of cercospora is indeed clearly higher this year than in the past two years', confirms Arno Huijsmans, director of agricultural affairs at Cosun Beet Company. According to Huijsmans, there are still approximately 42,000 hectares of beets in the ground and cercospora infestations can be found throughout the country. 'The weather has been favourable for the development of this leaf mold, but because the plants were already less vital at the base this year, they are more susceptible to diseases.' The sugar content has been on the rise in the last weeks of the campaign, but if there is less chlorophyll due to the infestation of cercospora, the sugar content increases much less rapidly. The expectation is that this will be reflected in the campaign figures in the coming weeks. The director of ...