Our future

Competing in a global marketplace

BUILDING A SUGAR INDUSTRY THAT WORKS FOR BRITAIN

Operating in a diverse and continually changing environment presents many opportunities and challenges. The final round of changes to the European Union (EU) sugar regime in 2017 was just one example. These changes abolished production quotas, removed minimum beet prices and eliminated the artificial distinction between sugar sold for food and industrial applications in the EU.

Such a dynamic market is increasing the pressure on the competitiveness of the total EU sugar supply chain. Growers, processors, haulage companies and other key stakeholders will all need to ensure their individual competitiveness so that the UK beet sugar industry can continue competing as a whole.

BREXIT OFFERS OPPORTUNITIES FOR GREAT BRITISH BUSINESSES

THE FUTURE: WHAT DOES BREXIT MEAN FOR THE UK BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY?

The UK European Referendum vote introduced a further dimension to the 2017 EU sugar reform for sugar producers in the EU. Brexit offers opportunities for great British businesses, such as British Sugar and the wider UK beet sugar industry.

The British beet sugar industry is important for our agricultural sector, supporting thousands of jobs and farming businesses. For the first time we have quantified the extent of this ripple‑down effect in our report 'British Sugar: A Homegrown Success Story', which you can read here.

GREAT OPPORTUNITIES

Our growers are supplying around eight million tonnes of sugar beet each year and in 2022/23 received £200 million in receipts from British Sugar.

Together with NFU Sugar, British Sugar has helped improve beet sugar yields by more than 25% in the past ten years. Britain has higher beet sugar yields than Brazil and most EU countries.

Key analysis on the contribution of the UK beet sugar industry can be viewed here.

EFFICIENT PROCESSORS

Devoting over £300m to capital investment in the past five years, we are transitioning from sugar factories to integrated bio-refineries.

Tremendous productivity gains: we are now producing more sugar from our four sites than ever before.

MORE THAN JUST SUGAR

Our advanced manufacturing process enables us to produce more than simply sugar:

Renewable energy from Combined Heat and Power creates enough power for over 120,000 homes.
Achieving UK market leading positions with our range of co-products from the process including TOPSOIL and LimeX.
Maximising every input into the process to transform all of our raw materials into sustainable products.