This family includes Swiss chard, red table beet, fodder beet and sugar beet.
Botanists place the sugar beet in the extensive Chenopodiaceae family, which includes food plants such as spinach, salicornia and quinoa.
Beets (or Swiss chard or leaf beet depending on the region) belong to the Beta vulgaris species, along with three sorts of cultivated beet :
- red table beet
- fodder beet, used mainly as animal feed
- Sugar beet (white flesh beet)
For purists, the full name of sugar beet is as follows : Beta vulgaris, subspecies vulgaris, cultivar Altissima !
Sugar beet has a conical, white, fleshy root and a flat crown. Sugar is formed in the sugar beet’s rosette of leaves, the size of which differs according to the variety, through a process of photosynthesis. The root serves as a reservoir for the sugar, which can represent between 15% and 21% of its total weight.
The variety of sugar beet currently cultivated in France and Europe is descended from the White Silesian variety selected by the German chemist Achard at the end of the 18th century for its sugar content (7%). It was initially grown in regions of northern Europe (France, Belgium and Prussia).
Unlike sugar cane, sugar beet does not thrive in tropical conditions. It prefers the temperate, humid conditions prevalent from April to September, with dry, sunny periods just before the harvest. Producers often reserve their best land – fertile and deep – for the sugar beet because of its delicate, fragile nature in its initial stages of life. In France, 90% of land planted with beet is located north of the Loire River.
The sugar production process takes place in the first year of the sugar beet’s life. The sugar is stored in the root, which is almost completely buried under the soil and which measures from 15-35 cm long. The sugar beet is harvested at this stage. If the growing cycle were allowed to continue, it would enter into its reproductive phase and would use, the following year, all of its sugar to produce seeds.
Although sugar beet occupies the soil for eight months of the year, the farmer must take care of the land all year round. Beet growing forms part of a process that ensures the protection of soil, air and water resources
In winter, the beet planter performs analyses to measure the levels of nitrogen in the soil. The fields are sown in spring. The crop is harvested in autumn.
In France, the harvest begins at the end of September and must be completed before the worst of the cold weather arrives. The planter’s major concern is to provide the production plant with quality sugar beet grown on the smallest area of land possible.
Sugar beet is lifted mechanically. One machine performs several tasks and is comprised of a “topper” or “defoliator” at the front, and a “lifter” at the rear. Before transport, soil removal machines clean the sugar beets.
Transporting the crop is no mean feat. It must be completed very quickly because the sugar content of sugar beets drop rapidly once lifted. Sugar processing plants work day and night in the two to three months following the harvest.
Depending on the quality of the seeds, soil, fertiliser, treatment and climate, yields vary between 50 and 70 tonnes of roots per hectare. During the 2003-2004 campaign, the average French yield was 75 tonnes of sugar beet per hectare, placing France among the world’s leading producers in terms of productivity.
Genetic research, seed selection, the fight against diseases and parasites, and the mechanization of the various growing and harvesting phases have resulted in significant improvements in beet yields. In 1960 and 1980, the sugar beet per hectare yields were 48 and 51 tonnes respectively.