On 23 January, AGRANA completed the sugar beet campaign at
its refinery in Tulln, thereby signalling the successful
close of the 2011|12 processing season at all of its
facilities. With a duration of up to 135 days, these were
the longest campaigns in the history of AGRANA.
Sugar beet campaigns
Following an average processing period of 123 days
(prior year: 114 days), AGRANA's seven sugar beet
processing plants in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Romania produced around 935,000 (prior year:
803,000) tonnes of sugar from 5.9 million (prior year: 5.4
million) tonnes of sugar beet. At AGRANA's sugar
processing plant in Tulln, Lower Austria, the production
volume for the first time exceeded the 300,000-tonne mark,
representing the largest ever quantity of sugar produced at
a single facility and a significant increase compared to
the prior year (approx. 260,000 tonnes).
The yield per hectare in all countries involved in
production activities amounted to an average of 65.5 tonnes
based on a total cultivated area of 90,000 hectares. Due to
the excellent quality of the beet and the very good weather
conditions during both the season and the storage period,
the average sugar content overall amounted to 17.66% (prior
year: 16.5%), and 17.8% (prior year: 17.2%) in Austria.
This season, the environmentally sensitive transport of the
sugar beet was once again one of the key focuses of the
campaign organisation. Across all producing countries,
around 40% of the sugar beet was transported by rail to the
sugar factories, with the highest proportion transported by
rail, 55%, being in Austria.
In addition, energy consumption related to sugar beet
processing was reduced by more than 8% relative to the
quantity of beet processed. During the course of the
campaign in Hungary, over 50% of the primary energy
requirements were met in the form of self-produced
biogas.
Starch potato campaign
Over the course of 145 days (prior year: 114 days), a total
of 235,500 (prior year: 186,300) tonnes of starch potatoes
were accepted for processing at the potato starch mill in
Gmünd, Lower Austria. The volume of potato starch
manufactured this season of over 50,000 tonnes is 32% above
that of the previous year and is therefore the highest
volume ever processed in Gmünd.
In addition, the autumn deliveries also included 9,500
(prior year: 8,500) tonnes of food-grade potatoes, as well
as 4,600 (prior year: 3,000) tonnes of organic food-grade
potatoes for long-life potato products such as potato
flakes.
Furthermore, around 3,100 tonnes of food-grade potatoes
grown under controlled organic conditions were used in the
production of potato products for baby food.