Sugar beet yields vary considerably across the north-east this year. The Anklam sugar factory put the range at 50 to 100 tonnes per hectare on 14 November 2026. Drought had caused severe damage in some areas, particularly in the south of its growing region, the company said. It expects the average yield per area to be lower than in the previous two years.
The assessment covers the factory’s catchment area and is not a final harvest report for the whole of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The factory receives beet from more than 300 farms. According to the company, its area stretches from Rostock on 28 September 2026 worth Rügen to the Polish border, and south into Brandenburg’s Uckermark region. The stated yield range does not show how badly individual farms have been affected.
The managing director of Cosun Beet Company Anklam, Michael Engel, described the quality of the beet delivered to the factory as good in comments to the German Press Agency. Its sugar content ranged from 16 to 21 per cent. Although the expected average yield is below the levels of the previous two years, it is likely to be around the average for the past five years. This is an estimate made while processing is under way, not a final result.
For comparison, during the 2025/2026 campaign the factory processed, according to the company, just over 1.8 million tonnes of sugar beet. The average yield at the time was more than 83 tonnes per hectare. In the previous season, the factory processed a record 1.9 million tonnes of beet. The amount processed and the yield per hectare measure different things and cannot be directly equated.
According to the factory, processing runs around the clock, with deliveries from Monday to Saturday. The current campaign is expected to last until the final week of December. Some of the crop is processed into granulated sugar, while some is initially stored as thick juice and processed later. Other products include animal feed, bioethanol and biomethane.
At the start of the campaign, on 7 September 2026, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s agriculture ministry had expected average to good yields. It cited a growing area of around 26,400 hectares in the state and generally adequate water supplies during the growing season. The company’s later assessment shows that conditions varied across its growing region.
As well as the size of the harvest, the industry is concerned about market conditions. Engel said low sugar prices were making it harder for farmers and manufacturers to invest. He did not say whether sugar would become scarce in Europe: stocks had been high before the harvest. This is the company’s assessment, not a forecast of price movements.
Editor: Daniel Mayer (Article created with AI assistance).