The sugar beet processing campaign has begun at Magyar Cukor Zrt.

(Photo: Pixabay)

They wrote: the sugar beet harvest will start on September 26, the processing period will start in the 40th week of the year and will last for 85 days according to plans. The harvested sugar beet will arrive at the Kaposvár factory by rail and road in a ratio of half and half, where the work will be carried out by 210 permanent and 50-55 temporary workers in a three-shift work schedule.

Sugar beet is being grown on 10,900 hectares this year to supply the Kaposvár sugar factory

The drought and warm weather adversely affected sugar beet, similar to all spring-sown crops, but diseases and pathogens did not significantly affect the stocks – they explained, highlighting that the early autumn rainy period was favorable for sugar beet, and most of the stocks regenerated after the summer growing season. They announced that the European Union’s crop estimate (JRC MARS Bulletin) predicted an average sugar beet yield of 54.6 tons per hectare for Hungary in August, and the expected sugar content based on ripening experiments significantly exceeds the multi-year average.

The majority owner of Magyar Cukor Zrt. is the Austrian Agrana group, the leading sugar producer in Central and Eastern Europe, and the largest bioethanol producer in Austria

The group of companies is the world leader in fruit preparations and is also the most significant producer of fruit juice concentrate in Europe. Agrana employs 9,000 people in 51 production plants in 24 countries worldwide and has an annual turnover of 3.5 billion euros, in Hungary, in addition to the Kaposvár sugar factory, Szabadegyházi Hungrana Kft. is the owner of 50 percent – it was announced. According to public company data, Magyar Cukor Zrt. (full name Magyar Cukorgyártó és Forgalmazó Zrt.) achieved net sales of approximately 44.7 billion forints in the business year between March 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025, of which exports accounted for 5.1 billion forints, and the after-tax profit was approximately 2.6 billion forints. The company had net sales of 38.8 billion forints in the previous business year, of which 4.6 billion was export revenue. The company’s after-tax profit was 1.66 billion forints.

MTI