KWS seeks to be more "competitive" in a "challenging" beet sector

Instance of the debate about the beet sector during the day. JESUS ​​F. SALVADORES

The KWS seed company gathered about 300 farmers yesterday at the Valdemora Farm in La Bañeza with the realization of a technical day on beet where they addressed specific issues of the crop, as well as the sugar market and the short and medium term prospects of the sector.

A meeting with an eye on the spring of 2020, as KWS Semillas Iberian country manager Santiago Felizia highlighted, "the context of the sector is undoubtedly challenging and forces us to be increasingly competitive." In this regard, he indicated that "there is an uncertainty of market prices and fluctuations in a good part of the sector but it goes beyond beet, it is in the agricultural sector in general".

In that sense, Felizia said that "beet is our total commitment because we believe it is a crop that will contribute many things in social, environmental and economic matters"; to which he added: «our part as seedlings is the contribution through the seed and we are committed to the improvement in genetics and agronomy and, for this, we have a lot of people working so that beets continue to be a crop key and strategic for many farmers ».

The director of Aimcra defended the profitability of beet in the irrigation rotation

The commercial manager of KWS in Spain «genetic improvement is focused on increasing crop productivity to contribute to profitability, but also to generate defense or tolerance mechanisms in beet against pathogenic external agents that are increasingly common in the case of this area ».

The director of Aimcra (Research Association for the Improvement of Sugar Beet Cultivation), Elba Rosique, who spoke about beet as a profitable, competitive and sustainable crop in irrigation rotation participated also in the technical day. In this regard, he explained that “we are working on different projects such as the control of the cercospora, the control of the yellowness transmitted by the aphid, the costs of irrigation and the efficient use of nitrogen in which we are very clear that we can improve the profitability based on technological innovations to be able to give the best recommendation to each farmer so that he can be more efficient and achieve savings in his crop ».

Another of those responsible for KWS, Gonzaga Hernández, was "optimistic" about the price of sugar in international markets, "which is already rising, and with a tendency to continue." On the other hand, another member of the company, Javier Fuertes, who talked about beet varieties, stressed that "the important thing is to put more value on the seed, not on products outside the seed."

Editor's note: This article was originally published in Spanish. This English summary has been prepared with Google Translate and edited for clarity.