The health disaster of "
jaundice
" in sugar beet fields in France resulted in a "
historically low
"
harvest
, estimated at 27.4 million tonnes in 2020, its lowest volume for more than thirty years, according to the report. professional union of French beet growers.
Read also: Beet yellows: in the National Assembly, the controversial return of neonicotinoids
From the invasion of the green aphid vector of jaundice to the soap opera of the crisis of neonicotinoid insecticides, the year 2020 has been "
catastrophic at all levels
", ruled Tuesday, December 1 Franck Sanders, president of the General Confederation of Beet trees ( CGB), by presenting its annual report.
After an already “
dark
”
year in 2019
, marked by overproduction and the closure of four French factories, the results for 2020 are worse than expected, with historically low yields of 65 tonnes per hectare on average against 85 tonnes last year , a drop of 30% compared to the average of the last five years.
Only Seine-Maritime was not affected by the epidemic, with yields of 84 tonnes per hectare, but the rest of the regions, particularly south of Paris, were badly affected, including organic producers in full development, Sanders said.
In Seine-et-Marne, yields collapsed to 30 tonnes per hectare.
In total, losses amount to 280 million euros for beet growers, "
solely due to yield losses
", and the total loss of added value for the entire sector is estimated between 600 and 700 million d euros compared to what it could have produced.
"
It's a financial disaster for the operators, who lost an average of 700 euros per hectare, a year much more catastrophic than one could have imagined,
" Sanders said during a press briefing.
The beet industry hopes by mid-December for the promulgation of the law provisionally re-authorizing the use of seeds coated with neonicotinoid insecticides, disputed for their dangerousness on biodiversity.
The text is the subject of an appeal before the Constitutional Council.
The sector is especially waiting for “
clarifications
” on their conditions of use before the seeds are made, followed by sowing next spring.
It also expects compensation for losses suffered, as promised by the Minister on August 6, and in this context hopes for the removal of the ceiling of a so-called "
de minimis
"
framework
which limits their amount to 20,000 euros every three years.
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