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Delta Sugar looks to raise output as Egypt pushes sugar beet

Delta, which says it is the Middle East’s largest beet sugar producer, produced around 270,000-300,000 tonnes last year.
20.02.19 | Source: Business Recorder

Egypt’s Delta Sugar hopes to produce 310,000 tonnes of sugar this year, the company’s board chairman told Reuters, after the government expanded the area allotted for planting sugar beet as it tries to save water.

Egypt, which depends on the Nile for almost all its water, is trying to expand sugar beet planting as it consumes less water than cane, and has increased its cultivation area to 600,000 feddans (622,705 acres) from 485,000 feddans.

“Each feddan uses approximate 3.5 cubic feet of water, and sugar beet itself doesn’t need to be planted in highly fertile soil … which gives it a competitive edge [over other crops] to be planted in newly reclaimed land,” Ahmed Abu al-Yazid said.

Delta, which says it is the Middle East’s largest beet sugar producer, produced around 270,000-300,000 tonnes last year.

Egypt is trying to slash cultivation of water-intensive crops to conserve Nile river resources as Ethiopia prepares to fill the reservoir behind a colossal $4 billion dam it is building upstream and which Cairo worries could threaten its water stocks.

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