AGRANA Starts Autumn 2010 Campaign
Date: 17.09.2010Sugar beet campaigns
On 17 September, AGRANA launched its sugar beet campaigns at its sugar refineries in Tulln|Lower Austria and Hrusovany|Czech Republic. The AGRANA refineries in Kaposvár|Hungary and Sered|Slovakia began their refining activities on 13 and 14 September respectively. The campaign at the plant in Leopoldsdorf|Lower Austria is set to start on 24 September. The AGRANA refineries in Opava|Czech Republic and Roman|Romania will begin processing sugar on 27 and 29 September respectively.
Due to the weather and vegetation conditions, average to good beet harvests per hectare are forecast in all countries. Above-average precipitation, however, is responsible for a low sugar content compared to the average of past years and is also hampering the collection of the harvest. The area dedicated to organic beet was increased to 750 hectares in the current season and has therefore more than doubled since the start of organic sugar beet production in 2008.
In total, the 2010|2011 sugar beet campaign is forecast to yield around 772,000 tonnes of sugar (prior year: 747,000 tonnes) from approximately 5.2 million tonnes of sugar beet (prior year: 5.1 million tonnes) processed at AGRANA’s seven sugar beet refineries in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
Potato campaign
The processing of industrial starch potatoes at the facility in Gmund began on 30 August 2010. In total, contracts were concluded for 206,500 tonnes although, based on current estimates, only 85% of this quantity is expected to be harvested due to the weather conditions (quantity processed in prior year: 187,400 tonnes). Given a starch content of approximately 18%, the quantity of starch obtained is expected to be around 37,000 tonnes.
The processing of starch potatoes and organic starch potatoes for the food industry to make potato flakes began on 16 August 2010. AGRANA assumes a yield of around 28,000 tonnes of potatoes (prior year: 25,000 tonnes), 22% of which will be organic.
Wet corn campaign
The Aschach plant is expected to process approximately 100,000 tonnes (prior year: 100,000 tonnes) of wet corn in the period from 5 September to the end of November, before switching to dry corn. At Hungrana in Hungary, the processing of wet corn also began in early September, with the forecast being that around 180,000 tonnes of wet corn (prior year: 186,000 tonnes) will be processed in the next three months. In the period between mid September and the end of October, the bioethanol plant in Pischelsdorf will also be processing wet corn in addition to wheat.
Apple campaign
AGRANA launched its apple campaigns in the key European growing areas of Hungary, Poland and Austria in the middle of September.