Campaign results
The 2012-2013 campaign has been completed.
For almost 4 months, a lot of trucks and tractors have been delivering sugar beets to our factories in Tirlemont and Longchamps. The 2012-2013 campaign began on Monday 17 September and was completed on Monday 14 January. It lasted thus for 118 days, 14 days less than the year before.
The final results are in line with the expectations. We note a yield of 73.05 tons of beet per hectare with a sugar content of 18.04° or 13.2 tons of polarized sugar per hectare. This performance is the third highest yield, following on from the record years of 2009 and 2011.
Despite the fact that more have been cleaned in the field this year, the total soil tare is almost 4% higher than last year. This is due to the very wet weather before and during the campaign.
This year, both the Transport Charter and our awareness campaign towards our transporters have paid off. All of our transporters have signed the charter, which focuses on their civic responsibility and states guidelines which must be followed, such as: respect your breaks, take care of the cleanliness of the roads, respect the community by diminishing noise and clean your tyres before leaving the fields. The appreciation of those neighbouring the factory has proved the efficiency of these different actions.
The investment in Tirlemont and Longchamps has improved the beet yard, the place where the sugar beets are delivered and stocked. It now meets the safety standards and has an automated license plate recognition and a better signalization. The objective is to ensure qualitative beets and an optimal sugar yield. This renovation led to a decrease in the waiting periods of trucks and tractors on the plants and an increase in the safety of our transporters and employees.
It is never easy to cope with an extraordinary year such as the one of 2011-2012. However, we can be very happy with the good results, which have been achieved thanks to the help of every employee.
The end of the campaign does not mean that everything now stands still on the plants. Tirlemont for example, has started its mini-campaign to process the stored syrup into sugar in the coming weeks.