AGRANA – Successful completion of the 2008|09 campaign
Date: 23.01.2009On 22 January 2009, AGRANA completed the sugar beet campaign at its refinery in Leopoldsdorf, Lower Austria, thereby signalling the successful close of the 2008|09 processing season at all of its facilities.
Sugar beet campaign in Austria
From 24 September to 20 and 22 January respectively, the Austrian refineries of AGRANA in Tulln and Leopoldsdorf processed a total of 2.9 million tonnes (prior year: 2.52 million tonnes) of sugar beet to produce around 444,000 tonnes of sugar (prior year: 383,324 tonnes). Due to the favourable weather conditions, the yield per hectare was particularly high this year at 71.8 tonnes. For the first time ever, in the 2008|09 processing season, AGRANA also produced 1,823 tonnes of organic sugar from 15,065 tonnes of Austrian sugar beet grown under certified organic conditions.
Sugar beet campaign of the AGRANA Group
In total, 717,000 tonnes of sugar (prior year: 711,080 tonnes) were produced from 4.72 million tonnes of sugar beet (prior year: 4.62 million tonnes) at AGRANA’s seven sugar beet refineries in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The quantity of sugar, approximately 100,000 tonnes, in excess of AGRANA’s allocated sugar quota for the 2008|09 sugar marketing year of 618,502 tonnes will be marketed as industrial sugar.
Potato campaign
During the starch potato campaign at the AGRANA plant in Gmünd, Lower Austria, a total of 198,532 tonnes of starch potatoes (prior year: 195,000 tonnes), of which 6,257 tonnes were organic starch potatoes, with an average starch content of approximately 18.4%, were processed during the period between 26 August and 20 December 2008. In addition, 9,402 tonnes of food industry potatoes and 3,681 tonnes of organic food industry potatoes were accepted for processing into long-life potato products such as potato flakes.
Wet corn campaign
Between 8 September and 5 December 2008, 106,500 tonnes (prior year: 103,000 tonnes) of freshly harvested corn, so-called wet corn, was processed at the AGRANA corn starch factory in Aschach, Upper Austria. At the bioethanol and isoglucose factory of Hungrana in Sabadegyhaza, Hungary, a total of 186,000 tonnes of wet corn was processed between 8 September and 30 November 2008. This is significantly more than in the prior year (21,000 tonnes) due to the expansion in processing capacity.
Apple campaign
During the 2008|09 campaigns at its facilities in Austria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and China, AGRANA processed 830,000 tonnes of apples (prior year: 513,000 tonnes) to make apple juice concentrate in the period between the end of August 2008 and the middle of January 2009.