Belarus Starts Sugar-Beet Harvest as Four Factories Move to Continuous Processing
Belarus has started harvesting sugar beet, while its four processing plants are moving to round-the-clock operations. The country produced about 700,000 tonnes of sugar from domestic beet last year, with half of that volume potentially available for export.
Harvest and processing begin
Belarus has entered its sugar-beet harvesting season, and processing plants are moving to round-the-clock operations to handle the incoming crop. MIR 24 reported that speed is critical because harvested beet deteriorates quickly, while its value depends not only on root weight but also on sugar content and careful handling during lifting and transport.
Harvesters remove the leaves, lift the roots, clean them and transfer them into their bunkers. Avoiding damage helps preserve the sugar-rich juice before the crop reaches the factory. Since July, factory agronomists have inspected fields every ten days, taken samples and monitored growth. Agricultural engineer Vladimir Avdus said the average sugar content at his organization was about 16.4%, slightly above the baseline level.
Factories operate around the clock
During the season, as many as 400 loaded dump trucks pass through a factory’s gates each day. The plant operates continuously, and the report says there is only a week to process the full volume of raw material because beet spoils rapidly. A single storage pile can contain up to 8,000 tonnes of beet, an amount the factory can process in about five hours.
At the plant, the roots are washed, cut into thin strips and soaked in hot water to extract the sugar. The resulting juice is filtered and purified with lime milk and carbonation gas. Daria Tyunikova, an engineer specializing in automated production-control systems, told MIR 24 that these reagents are a normal part of the technological process used to clean the juice.
The brown juice then moves into vacuum pans, where the syrup is boiled under reduced pressure. Water is removed, the sucrose concentration rises and crystals begin forming in the thickened mass. Centrifuges complete the dehydration stage, after which the finished sugar can be packaged.
Byproducts support plant economics
Belarusian sugar plants seek to minimize production waste. Beet pulp is used as livestock feed, while molasses is processed into industrial alcohol that can serve as a base for antiseptics. Even the desugared juice can be returned to agriculture, allowing factories to derive additional value from material left after the main sugar-extraction process.
Belarus produces more sugar than its domestic market requires. The country has four processing factories, and exports are described as the foundation of the sector’s business model rather than a supplementary sales channel. Belarusian sugar is supplied to more than 20 countries, with the largest share of exports going to the Eurasian Economic Union and Central Asian markets.
According to MIR 24, Belarus earns 460 million Belarusian rubles annually from sugar exports, equivalent to about 13 billion Russian rubles. Last year, the country produced roughly 700,000 tonnes of sugar from domestically grown beet, and half of that output represented potential export supply. The new processing campaign will therefore affect not only growers and factories but also freight operators and regional buyers that depend on the timely movement of beet into plants and finished sugar into external markets.
