Sugar beet

The sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) is a root crop that belongs to the same family as the red beet and Swiss chard. It grows primarily in the northern hemisphere and is one of the most commonly grown crops in the Netherlands. The sugar beet accumulates sugar (sucrose) in its root as a storage food. Around 17% of the root consists of sugar.

The sugar beet is an exceptionally efficient crop: no other crop in the Netherlands yields as many tons of raw materials per hectare as the sugar beet. Cosun Beet Company not only processes sugar beets into sugar, but also produces molasses, animal feed, bioethanol, green gas, plant-based fertilisers (digestate and betacal) and biobased products from the sugar beet.

In summary:

In summary:

  • Sugar beets are sown in March-April. The harvest starts in September, an activity that we refer to as the ‘beet campaign’.
  • The sugar beet consists primarily of water (~75%) and sugar (~17%). It also contains smaller amounts of various other substances, such as proteins, pectin and cellulose.
  • Around 80% of global sugar production involves sugar cane, which grows in tropical countries, while 20% is from sugar beets. Cane and beet sugar are the same (both are sucrose), but the environmental impact of beet sugar is substantially lower than that of cane sugar.
  • RuBisCo protein can be extracted from sugar beet leaves.
  • Sugar can also serve as a raw material for making such products as allulose, a low-calorie sugar.