French Sugar Beets Developing Faster Than Average on Warm April

France’s sugar-beet crop, the world’s biggest, is developing at a faster-than-average pace after warm April temperatures boosted growth, crop researcher Institut Technique de la Betterave said.

Plant development is about 10 days ahead of the five-year average, allowing for a potential yield gain of 10 percent, the Paris-based ITB said on its website. The sugar-beet crop so far has suffered “little” from a lack of rain, the researcher said.

France had its second-hottest April since 1900 and one of the driest since 1953, the Agriculture Ministry said in an online report. Temperatures across France averaged 14.5 degrees Celsius (58 Fahrenheit) last month, 3.8 degrees above normal.

“Being well established, the sugar beets have suffered only a little from the lack of water and have benefited from the elevated temperatures,” the institute said. “The high April temperatures have accelerated the development of the beets.”

On average, France’s beet-growing regions received 14.5 millimeters (0.57 inch) of rain in April, bringing the precipitation deficit since the start of the year to 96 millimeters, ITB said.

France is the world’s largest sugar-beet producer, ahead of Russia and the U.S., according to theUnited Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. The European country produced 31.7 million metric tons of sugar beets last year, according to Eurostat data.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-05/french-sugar-beets-developing-faster-than-average-on-warm-april.html)