Sugar beet campaign 2025: Nordzucker focuses on sustainability and innovation!

Sugar beet campaign 2025: Nordzucker focuses on sustainability and innovation!

In the northern German sugar industry, everything revolves around sugar beets, which have developed splendidly in many regions to the delight of farmers. With the start of the 2025 sugar beet campaign on September 3rd in Schladen, Lower Saxony, Nordzucker's plants are preparing for the challenges and opportunities ahead. But as always in the agricultural business, further success depends heavily on the weather conditions, which are crucial for growth and sugar formation until the harvest. The high temperatures in particular are a breeding ground for diseases such as the spread of Stolbur, which is transmitted by the reed leafhopper, which poses additional risks for breeders [GA.de].

Not only has Nordzucker prepared excellently for the campaign, the competition has also not remained idle. However, sugar beet growers are facing increasing problems, particularly with the spread of Basses Richesses Syndrome (SBR), which is affecting the quality and sugar content of the plants. This bacterial infection is also transmitted by cicadas and has already gained a foothold in the 2023 campaign, as Südzucker reports. To address this threat, a task force was established to coordinate research results to combat SBR and promote networking between agriculture and research.

Developments in sugar beet processing

Looking to the future, Nordzucker made major investments in maintenance and modernization of the plants during the maintenance phase. These measures aim not only to improve processing performance, but also to reduce CO2 emissions. A new decanter at the Clauen plant is intended to increase efficiency, while Danish plants are using biogas from pressed beet pulp to generate energy for the first time. At the same time, the aim is to achieve CO2-neutral production by 2050 at the latest, with a goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 having already been formulated [GA.de].

While the sugar beet campaign usually runs from mid-September to January, farmers are already intensively dealing with the challenges that cultivation brings with it. The abandonment of certain pesticides and increasing political requirements increase the pressure on growers. It discusses how changes in crop rotation and tillage can provide better control of pests. Avoiding wintering as a subsequent crop is considered one of the better methods to contain the pests that are responsible for the transmission of SBR, as [AgrarHeute](https://www.agrarheute.com/ plante/zuckerrueben/wenig-zucker-rueben-kaempfen-landwirte-gegen-diese-zwei-erreger-632955) describes.

Coordination and cooperation in the fight against SBR

The task force to combat SBR was formed in 2023 to work together to develop solutions. These measures are more than just a bad trend - they are necessary to combat the main problem of the cicada population and support sugar beet growers. In addition to collecting and sharing observations to combat SBR, new resistance varieties will also be developed to help farmers achieve high-yield harvests.

Farmers are therefore not just producers, but active co-creators who are working together on a sustainable future for sugar beet production. In view of the current challenges, it is clear that the future of sugar beet production depends largely on cooperation and research in order to sustainably ensure both quality and yield. A holistic approach is needed to give the industry new impetus and meet the challenges of climate change.