Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sugar beet, Remolacha, Beta vulgaris

Sugar beets are originally from the seacoasts of Mediterranean, where the oldest known beet type, the chard, was domesticated about 4 000 years ago. However it was grown mostly for the foliage and it's alleged medicinal values, as varieties with big taproots weren't developed until  200-300 AD in Italy.  Roman gardeners gave us both red and white ( sugar ) beets.
Sugar was extracted from beets by German chemist Andreas Sigismund Margraff (1709-1782)  in 1747.
By 1802, first beet-sugar factory was opened in Silesia, and  then  Napoleon was forced to develop this industry by sweet-loving French  in 1811, as the British deprived  France from it's colonial sugar during the blockade.
About 80 000 acres were sown with beets and 300 small sugar factories were open , however the industry collapsed with the fall of Napoleon and didn't recover until 1850s  (issues with availability and cost of labor in the Caribbeans ). After that date  it was growing pretty fast though.
Even now France is the world's top producer of sugar beets ( up to 15% of the world  harvest ) and an absolute champion in production  of sugar beets per capita , about 557 kg ( Metropolitan France ) as of 2009. Over 2% of all arable land in France is used  for beets.

mountains of sugar beets in France

Sugarbeets  are giving us about 30% of all world's sugar.  67  countries are producing sugar beets commercially and the grand total was 227 158 114 tons as of 2009, which came to about 33.4 kg per capita worldwide.
However the production declines for the last 20 years or so, as energy becomes expensive  sugar from sugarcane  beats sugar from sugar beets  by price  badly ( sugarcane  can be processed by burning  its dry matter ), so the  production of sugar beets  has been declining since 1989, when there was a biggest crop in history , over 314 million tonnes. Still, sugar beets are a wonderful , fast growing crop that is ideal for many  areas. In ideal conditions, a hectare can bring as much as 19 tons of sucrose  ( 19.1 t as a record , 115 tons   per ha with 16.5% sucrose content, within 240 days ).
A typical acre in California  would produce about  22.5 tons of  beets containing 15% sucrose. Once processed , it would yield almost  3 tons of sugar,  1.4 tons of dry root pulp  ( excellent food  supplement for cattle ) and almost 40 kilograms of  Mono-sodium Glutamate ,  the infamous food flavoring.  There would be 2.7 tons of dry  beet  tops, which could be used as a fertilizer or a cattle , sheep feed.
However a crop like that  will remove 60 kilograms of Nitrogen, 60 kg of Potassium and  8 kg of Phosphorus per acre.

In 2009  4 274 064 hectares ( a territory similar in size with Denmark) were sown with sugar beets worldwide, or about 0.27% of all arable land in the world.



List of all articles at Ironrye:
 http://ironrye.blogspot.com/2011/10/list-of-all-articles-at-iron-rye.html

Production by country in tonnes

item200720082009
Afghanistan
Sugar beet
12938 13316 16500
Albania
Sugar beet
40000* 40000* 40000*
Algeria
Sugar beet

M
M
M
Armenia
Sugar beet
27000F 30000F 10000F
Austria
Sugar beet
2656210 3091430 3083140
Azerbaijan
Sugar beet
141916 190680 188670
Belarus
Sugar beet
3626150 4030380 3972990
Belgium
Sugar beet
5746890 4713900 5186180
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sugar beet
0 36 0F
Bulgaria
Sugar beet
16281 0F 0F
Canada
Sugar beet
762000 344700 657700
Chile
Sugar beet
1517690 1208500 1042420
China
Sugar beet
8931000 10044000 7178960
Colombia
Sugar beet
11074 29689 30043
Croatia
Sugar beet
1582610 1269540 1217040
Czech Republic
Sugar beet
2889870 2884650 3038220
Denmark
Sugar beet
2255300 2187210 1898200
Ecuador
Sugar beet
3850
3900F 3900F
Egypt
Sugar beet
5458210 5132590 5133510
Estonia
Sugar beet

M
M
M
Finland
Sugar beet
673100 468000 559000
France
Sugar beet
33229800 30321200 35066600
Georgia
Sugar beet
0F 0F 0F
Germany
Sugar beet
25139100 23002600 25919000
Greece
Sugar beet
866741 903000 1000000F
Hungary
Sugar beet
1692800 573160 737014
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Sugar beet
5407240 1829300 2041280
Iraq
Sugar beet
18000 17000 18000F
Ireland
Sugar beet
0 0 0F
Israel
Sugar beet
0F 0F 0F
Italy
Sugar beet
4670300 4390000* 3307700
Japan
Sugar beet
4297000 4248000 3649000
Kazakhstan
Sugar beet
309400 130200 181300
Kyrgyzstan
Sugar beet
155432 98000F 54000
Latvia
Sugar beet
10800 0 0F
Lebanon
Sugar beet
30900 37000 37000F
Lithuania
Sugar beet
799900 339100 682000
Mali
Sugar beet
3735 3800F 3800F
Mexico
Sugar beet

M
M
M
Morocco
Sugar beet
2484000 2925700 2925700F
Netherlands
Sugar beet
5511500 5218500 5735000
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Sugar beet

M
M
M
Pakistan
Sugar beet
83600 64095 93010*
Poland
Sugar beet
12681600 8715120 10849200
Portugal
Sugar beet
254046 137000 137000
Republic of Moldova
Sugar beet
612300 960712 337000
Romania
Sugar beet
748839 706660 816814
Russian Federation
Sugar beet
28836200 28995300 24892000
Serbia
Sugar beet
3206380 2299770 2797600
Slovakia
Sugar beet
846500 678915 898807
Slovenia
Sugar beet

M 0F 0F
Spain
Sugar beet
4909960 3987500 4153900
Sweden
Sugar beet
2137700 1974900 2405800
Switzerland
Sugar beet
1572930 1625220 1719710
Syrian Arab Republic
Sugar beet
1366450 1104900 732706
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Sugar beet
7852 8000F 4800F
Tunisia
Sugar beet
0 0F 0F
Turkey
Sugar beet
12414700 15488300 17274700
Turkmenistan
Sugar beet
234000F 234000F 234000F
Ukraine
Sugar beet
16977700 13437700 10067500
United Kingdom
Sugar beet
6733000 7500000 8330000
United States of America
Sugar beet
31912000 24386000 26779200
Uruguay
Sugar beet
0F 0F 0F
Uzbekistan
Sugar beet
0* 0F 0F
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Sugar beet
20738 20541 20500F
World + (Total)
Sugar beet
246535232A 222043714A 227158114A

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