Down on the Farm - Sweet 'n' Sour
WHEN most of you sit down to read the Crier you will probably have a cup of tea or coffee at the same time. Some of you will have no sugar in it, others will have an artificial sweetener and the rest will have one hundred percent real sugar.
Many people in this part of the country think that all the sugar sold in the UK is grown here - with the dirty roads and numerous sugar beet lorries at this time of the year that is a fair assumption! However, since the Second World War, as a country, we have only produced fifty percent of what we consume. This is due to an agreement that was made whereby we make up the shortfall by buying sugar from the Caribbean and some African nations to help their economies. This arrangement has worked well up to now but in my opinion it is all about to change for the worse.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has said that the European Sugar regime must change. Most farmers will grudgingly agree that this is right, but only if done in the right way. At the time of writing the European Commission has lodged an appeal with the WTO against the reforms. Brazil, Australia and Thailand have complained that they are not happy with the EU's appeal. If the EU fails in its appeal, the three aforementioned countries will produce virtually all the worlds' sugar, in the process decimating not only Europe's sugar industry but also the Caribbean and some African nations, with the obvious consequences for their economies. We wait to see what will happen.
In the meantime, we have started out beet harvesting for this year. We share a machine with three other farms in the area. This is due to the very high cost of owning a machine - with four of us we can spread the costs over a larger area.
The harvest generally starts in mid September and goes right through to mid February when the sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmunds closes. This allows us as a lifting group to determine when we start and on which farm. Factors such as which crop is going in after the beet, soil type (heavy soil is easier to lift from earlier in the year before it gets too wet and unmanageable and the following crop will not establish to easily) and logistics (transport considerations particularly where the sugar beet clamp is in relation to the field) are all taken into account.
When the beets are lifted they are loaded on to lorries by machines, which will partly clean away any mud and stones. This prevents us paying haulage on non-beet weight and therefore saving money. Once at the factory the beets are tipped in to a huge pile. Bury takes approximately 15,000 tones a day - big pile!!
The beet is pushed into flumes of water that transports it to the first point of processing. During this journey they are cleaned and any remaining solids are removed. Once clean they are sliced into chip size portions and fed into a huge heated revolving drum. The end result of this process is a very thick juice and a dry sweet smelling cake. This byproduct is sold as cattle food.
The juice is further refined and will either be stored as a thick syrup or it will be processed into granulated sugar Ðthe sort we all buy in the supermarket. When buying sugar, check the label. Silver Spoon produces sugar from our homegrown sugar beet, Tate and Lyle is cane sugar and will have come from abroad. If the WTO has its way all our sugar will come from Brazil, Australia or Thailand, putting approximately 20,000 people in the UK out of work and causing the Caribbean nations a huge loss in foreign exchange.
We wait with interest...