Magyar Cukor has contracts with farmers harvesting sugar beet on 10,830 hectares, a smaller area to last year, but the yield is expected to be very good, averaging 65 tons per hectare, Kovács said. Sugar content is expected to reach 15.5%, he added. The refining campaign will run about 100 days.

Magyar Cukor’s refinery in Kaposvár is the last one operating in Hungary. All of the other refineries were shut down after the 2007 season, when the EU slashed sugar price subsidies and offered farmers and refineries incentives to get out of the business.