Bečej, 1 June 2016 – “This year, over 55.000 ha were sown with sugar beet in Serbia. Crops are in good condition, much better than in the same period of the previous years and the reason is favourble weather conditions tended to favour the queen of field crops” said Ljubiša Radenković, CEO of Sunoko, on the occasion of this traditional event “Sugar beet field day” held this year at the parcel of the estate of “PIK Bečej “a.d. near the castle Fantast.
On this occasion, the company Sunoko has presented the current state at the market of sugar beet, new technologies and hi-end agricultural machinery used to increase the yield of sugar beet.
“As the sugar market has relatively recovered it provided additional economic stability to this industrial sector. Overall changes in the world market, especially the reform in the EU market in terms of the abolition of production quotas beginning from October 2017, will increase the pressure on the market, therefore an increase of the price of sugar to a level it had few years ago cannot be expected. For this reason, the increase of profit and maintaining of the competitiveness of sugar beet can only be achieved by scoring better sugar yields per hectare. An essential pre-requisite for this is application of the new knowledge and compliance with principles of good agricultural practice” said Mr. Radenković, adding that compliance with basic agronomic principles represents a key importance to survival of agricultural sector and especially production of “the queen of field crops” – sugar beet.
Recent announcements of changes in the policy of leasing the stately-owned land on a long-term basis could certainly contribute to the expansion of crop rotation and thus it would facilitate the planning of the total crop production and crop protection. Untimely and inadequately performed cultivation and fertilization due to the late entry into possession have occured frequently, which significantly affected lower yields and poor general condition of sugar beet. There are producers in our country who achieve yields of sugar of more than 11 and 12 tons per hectare, although an average of approximately 8-9 t/ha is still relatively low compared to the Western European producers, which means that there is a huge potential for improving the production. In recent years, the damage caused by the emergence of Cercospora were significant and it is one of the reasons for launching a wide coordinated action of all the relevant participants in order to achieve full success in crop protection, excellent yields and high earnings.
These gatherings represent a way in which much of the latest knowledge in the production of sugar beet would find its way to its practical application.
