Finland's only sugar refinery to continue in operation

Finland's only sugar factory, located in Säkylä, is to remain operational.
      The facility's future was placed in doubt when reforms in the European Union geared to reducing overproduction of sugar meant sharp cuts in subsidies, and many Finnish growers of sugar beet were inclined to throw in the towel.
      According to Sucros, a Danisco subsidiary, which runs the Säkylä plant, more than 1,000 sugar beet growers have committed to continued cultivation of the crop, and their production is sufficient to keep the factory running at capacity.
     
Cultivation of sugar beet in Finland will now be focused geographically increasingly closer to the Säkylä plant. This coming season the average farm will be no more than 90 km from the factory, and only 10% of growers will be located more than 160km from Säkylä.
      In the fall of 2005 the EU resolved to cut sugar beet production across the entire Union (see earlier articles). The reforms led rapidly to the closure of Finland's other sugar refining plant at that time, in Salo.
      Sugar production declined by 45%, and is now around 81,000 tons a year.
     
The last remaining factory would also have shut its doors if too many growers had taken the compensation packages offered by the EU and chosen instead to moved to arable farming. The temptation was strong: grain prices have been heading sharply upwards on world markets.
      The Säkylä factory was built in 1952. Production takes place intensively during a three-month period from late September to late December, when the plant is operational around the clock, seven days a week.
      During the season, Säkylä can handle around 7,500 tons of sugar beet every day to produce just over a thousand tons of granulated sugar daily, or half the domestic consumption. In 2006, Finland was roughly 60% self-sufficient in sugar, with the remaining amount being imported cane sugar.
      The factory employs some 70 persons all year round, and during the autumn "campaign" a further 40 are taken on.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Farmers´ union calls for commitment from Sucros on future of Säkylä sugar factory
  Sugar beet farmers want to continue production (10.1.2008)
  Danisco to close down its sugar factory in Salo (10.2.2006)
  Sugar beet growers concerned at EU plans for production and producer prices

Links:
  Danisco Sugar Refininig, Säkylä Factory