Beet campaign with a strong finish

In autumn, everything in Austria and Hungary revolves around sugar beet - and not just in the fields. The energy-rich powerhouse forms the basis for a wide range of sugar products, from classic sugar cubes to gelling sugar, syrup, icing sugar and cane sugar. Sugar production also produces valuable by-products for the manufacture of animal feed and fertiliser: The lime fertiliser Carbokalk is used in organic farming, sugar beet molasses pulp is essential for the production of concentrated feed and beet pulp is used in biogas production.

Tulln is Europe's sugar capital

For Agrana, the leading sugar company in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the sugar beet harvest in early autumn is the most important time of the year. A total of around 25,000 tonnes of sugar beet are processed every day at the Austrian sites in Tulln and Leopoldsdorf. The central sugar warehouse is in Tulln. This is where all the types of sugar sold in Austria under the Wiener Zucker brand are produced, packaged, stored and delivered.

Sugar beet is part of the railway

The RCG is also very enthusiastic about the sugar beet, which is a good 20-30 cm long, weighs around 0.8-1.1 kg and has a sugar content of 15-20 %. Around 55 % of sugar beet in Austria and Hungary is transported by environmentally friendly rail, making it the Rail Cargo Group's largest single agricultural transport operation in terms of volume. For 2024, the farmers expected a high yield and good conditions for the start of the harvest in September. But then the floods came and everything changed.

Floods threaten sugar beet 

Heavy rainfall and flooding in large parts of Upper and Lower Austria quickly destroyed large areas of sugar beet. The damage to the railway line through the Tullnerfeld, which is essential for transporting beet, also meant that large parts of the harvest could not be transported in time for processing and were in danger of rotting. The consequence of the non-delivery: a threatened production standstill at Agrana's most important site in Tulln, with potential costs running into the millions. A solution had to be found, and quickly. 

Getting the beet to its destination

After the initial shock, an alternative route for the beet transport was planned in record time. Although the special transport via Krems with diesel locomotives meant a significant diversion, it enabled a continuous supply and secured valuable time during which the flood situation could gradually ease. One thing is certain: without the excellent teamwork between Agrana, ÖBB Infrastruktur and the Rail Cargo Group, several 100,000 tonnes of beet would have been lost.

Disastrous start, strong finish 

The beet campaign got off to a disastrous start in September. It is therefore all the more surprising that the campaign picked up speed by February. In Austria alone, 1.8 million tonnes of beet were transported, significantly more than in the previous year (1.5 million tonnes). RCG's Hungarian subsidiary also enjoyed a successful beet campaign. In the course of the campaign, more than 150,000 kilometres were covered and 430,000 tonnes were transported to Hungary's only sugar factory, Magyar Cukor Zrt.