Innovations In Sugar Beet

At around 200,000 million Euros, worldwide beet variety sales are huge and represent over a third of the company’s annual turnover.

And, as one of just three major breeders of beet varieties, KWS holds number one slot across Europe with an estimated 38% market share.

Furthermore, with two new rhizomania resistant types – Carissima and Sophia - sitting at the top of the new UK Recommended List and, in Mandella, the top yielding traditional variety, the company looks set to significantly grow its UK market share for 2009.

With a well established reputation of over 150 years of producing innovative new varieties, sugar beet remains one of the most important crops within the KWS portfolio.

According to European sugar beet product manager, Günter Diener, KWS’ success is down to its established innovation in breeding beet and its very large gene pool.

“Yield remains the number one priority for our breeders,” he says. “However with sugar production in the hands of a smaller number of professionals, we also have to provide varieties that can cope with the pressures of tighter rotations.

“Over the last few years, there has been a big trend towards rhizomania resistant varieties. Now, over 1 million ha of a 5.8 million ha world beet crop is down to rhizomania resistant types,” he points out.