In MY 2013/14 Poland’s white sugar production from sugar beets has been forecasted at 1.665 thousand MT or 12.2 percent lower than in the last campaign.
In Poland total area of sugar beet plantations diminished to 185 thousands of hectares, that is by 4.2 percent as compared with last year. The decrease in acreage resulted from over-quota production in 2012. Due to the excess production, above the quota for MY 2012/13 - sugar refiners contracted less volume of sugar beets this year. Poland’s production quota (1,405.6 thousand tons) used to be lower than domestic demand for sugar estimated at 1,600 thousand tons.
As the consequence, although production exceeds needs for the domestic market, Poland needs to import sugar in order to serve domestic industry and personal demands.
In 2013 the very late spring led to delays in sugar beet sowings. In some regions of Poland the delays reached four weeks, but growing conditions later in the spring/summer proved favorable allowing plants to recover before harvest. Some loss in acreage did occur in early June due to heavy rains and localized flooding. The sunny, warm autumn helped lead to a good, quality harvest. The 2013 sugar beet crop yielded an estimated at 11,000 thousand MT. Given early season conditions producers were satisfied with the average yield estimated at 58 MT per Ha.
Concentration of production is an on-going process driven by better, more efficient technologies that generate better yields. Over the last ten years plantation area per farmer has almost doubled.
