The increase in seasonal temperatures due to climate change has led to a decrease in the amount of sugar extracted from sugar beets.
Some 25 million tons of sugar beets were produced in Turkey during the 2024-2025 harvest period, according to Ramazan Erkoyuncu, president of PANKOBİRLİK and chairman of the Board of the Konya Sugar Beet Growers Cooperative.
Despite the increase in sugar beet output, there has been a decrease in the amount of sugar production due to global warming, Erkoyuncu said, adding that this situation is experienced worldwide.
The estimated decline in sugar production is 10 percent, according to Erkoyuncu.
“Last season, we obtained 513,000 tons of sugar from 3.808 million tons of beets.This year [2024-2025 period], we produced 460,000 tons of sugar from 3.775 million tons of beets,” he said, linking this to climate change.
“The differences in temperature between day and night have decreased. The weather did not cool down at night in the way the beet requires,” he explained.
He, however, assured that Türkiye will not face any sugar supply issues.
“Due to a leftover stock of 400,000 tons of sugar from the previous season, there is no issue of sugar shortage; in fact, there is an excess amount of sugar,” Koyuncu said.
Source: hurriyetdailynews