Producers warn: Polish sugar beet threatened by the Green Deal

Sugar producers draw attention to the need to consider how to achieve the Green Deal goals, but in a way that does not impact sugar beet crops. – Drastic reduction of plant protection products or fertilizers will not allow further cultivation of sugar beet – emphasizes Michał Gawryszczak, director of the office of the Association of Sugar Producers in Poland, in an interview with the website.

Farmers want the Green Deal to be thrown away

Let us remind you that Polish farmers are waiting for a decision on the Green Deal and a change in its assumptions. Their demands include: Prime Minister Donald Tusk is to meet with farmers on Saturday. He announced that he would have “something serious to announce when it comes to the Green Deal.” The assumptions of the Green Deal were first presented at the end of 2019. The European Commission described 10 priorities. They provide for a review of all regulations that will take into account possible impacts on the climate. The announcement included provisions regarding, among others: agriculture, biodiversity, or creating a circular economy.

The Green Deal poses challenges for sugar producers, similar to those for other agricultural industries, i.e. Europe must become climate neutral by 2050. In our case, as well as in the case of other farmers and other food industries, the “Farm to Fork” strategy also comes into play, which assumes that by 2050 we will have to reduce all plant protection products by 50% and fertilizers by 20%. , and at least half of the crops will have to be organic

– says Michał Gawryszczak.

Sugar companies will limit greenhouse gas emissions

Gawryszczak adds that it is not known whether farmers’ protests regarding the Green Deal will have any impact on the European Commission, but he hopes that the means of “achieving the goal” will be verified in some way. – Maybe it won’t be 50 percent. reduction of plant protection products, but maybe, for example, 25 percent. – says Gawryszczak. He emphasizes that each plant protection product has a direct impact on yields. With the same financial outlays and the same labor inputs, farmers’ yields are getting smaller, so at some point this crop cultivation is no longer profitable. For this reason, the farmer either switches to other crops or gives up growing any crops at all.

Sugar companies in the European Union and Poland will try to reduce the emission of these greenhouse gases by about 30 percent by the end of this decade. In the opinion of the Association of Sugar Producers in Poland, the industry mainly needs administrative facilities or appropriate legislation. The idea is to enable easy and uninterrupted investment in solutions, for example biogas. – We are trying to become independent from external energy sources, we are trying to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, so most sugar producers are currently focusing on the production of biogas from beet pulp. And for such energy production to be possible, appropriate regulations and administrative procedures are needed in our country – points out Michał Gawryszczak. The Association of Sugar Producers in Poland reports that in the 2023-2024 campaign, 2,341,375 tons of sugar were produced in our country. That’s as much as 30 percent. more than the record result from 2017-2018. Yields in the last campaign reached 63.86 tons per hectare, which is the best result in the last six years.