Dutch 2004 sugar output exceeds initial forecast

The Netherlands produced 1.032 million tonnes of white sugar last year, slightly above initial forecasts of 1.02 million tonnes but below the previous year's 1.074 million, industry officials said on Wednesday. The total Dutch sugar output last year exceeded expectations because sugar yields proved to be better than initially forecast, despite rainy summer weather, officials at the country's only two sugar producers told Reuters.
Sulkier Unite, the biggest Dutch sugar producer, put its 2004 output at 647,000 tonnes, up from a previous estimate of 640,000 tonnes but still below 677,000 produced in 2003, the firm's director for agricultural affairs Greet Sikken said.
The only other Dutch sugar producer, food group CSM, said on its Internet site that last year's production reached 385,000 tonnes from previously expected 380,000 tonnes.
CSM produced 397,000 tonnes of white sugar in 2003. "The average sugar yield was better than expected. It stood at 10.9 tonnes per hectare for our company and the average for the country would most likely turn at 10.8 tonnes," Sulkier Uni.'s Sikken said.
CSM said its average sugar yield stood at 10.7 tonnes per hectare last year.