France maintains its rank as the leading European sugar producer

During the campaign which has just ended, “31.5 million tonnes of sugar beets” were harvested, mainly in the north of the country, and “nearly 2 million tonnes of sugar cane” were harvested in the overseas departments and regions, notes in a press release Cultures Sucre, an association bringing together planters and manufacturers. For beet, the harvest is slightly better than the previous year (30.7 million tonnes in 2022-23), despite a drop in surface area of almost 6%, to 379,000 hectares. The sign, for Cultures Sucre, that “the sector has been able to adapt” despite “repeated climatic hazards and numerous agronomic challenges”. This campaign was in fact marked by continuous rains which delayed the harvesting of beets in the fall. Furthermore, planters remain very worried "in the absence of a lasting solution to deal with yellows", a virus transmitted by a green aphid which stunts the plant, underlines the association. Beet growers experienced the definitive ban on using seeds ...