Sugar beet, Remolacha, Beta vulgaris

Sugar beets are originally from the seacoasts of Mediterranean, where the oldest known beet type, the chard, was domesticated about 4 000 years ago. However it was grown mostly for the foliage and it's alleged medicinal values, as varieties with big taproots weren't developed until  200-300 AD in Italy.  Roman gardeners gave us both red and white ( sugar ) beets.
Sugar was extracted from beets by German chemist Andreas Sigismund Margraff (1709-1782)  in 1747.
By 1802, first beet-sugar factory was opened in Silesia, and  then  Napoleon was forced to develop this industry by sweet-loving French  in 1811, as the British deprived  France from it's colonial sugar during the blockade.
About 80 000 acres were sown with beets and 300 small sugar factories were open , however the industry collapsed with the fall of Napoleon and didn't recover until 1850s  (issues with availability and cost of labor in the Caribbeans ). After that date  it was growing pretty fast though.
Even now France is the world's top producer of sugar beets ( up to 15% of the world  harvest ) and an absolute champion in production  of sugar beets per capita , about 557 kg ( Metropolitan France ) as of 2009. Over 2% of all arable land in France is used  for beets.

mountains of sugar beets in France

Sugarbeets  are giving us about 30% of all world's sugar.  67  countries are producing sugar beets commercially and the grand total was 227 158 114 tons as of 2009, which came to about 33.4 kg per capita worldwide.
However the production declines for the last 20 years or so, as energy becomes expensive  sugar from sugarcane  beats sugar from sugar beets  by price  badly ( sugarcane  can be processed by burning  its dry matter ), so the  production of sugar beets  has been declining since 1989, when there was a biggest crop in history , over 314 million tonnes. Still, sugar beets are a wonderful , fast growing crop that is ideal for many  areas. In ideal conditions, a hectare can bring as much as 19 tons of sucrose  ( 19.1 t as a record , 115 tons   per ha with 16.5% sucrose content, within 240 days ).
A typical acre in California  would produce about  22.5 tons of  beets containing 15% sucrose. Once processed , it would yield almost  3 tons of sugar,  1.4 tons of dry root pulp  ( excellent food  supplement for cattle ) and almost 40 kilograms of  Mono-sodium Glutamate ,  the infamous food flavoring.  There would be 2.7 tons of dry  beet  tops, which could be used as a fertilizer or a cattle , sheep feed.
However a crop like that  will remove 60 kilograms of Nitrogen, 60 kg of Potassium and  8 kg of Phosphorus per acre.

In 2009  4 274 064 hectares ( a territory similar in size with Denmark) were sown with sugar beets worldwide, or about 0.27% of all arable land in the world.



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Production by country in tonnes

	item	2007		2008		2009
Afghanistan	Sugar beet	12938		13316		16500
Albania	Sugar beet	40000	*	40000	*	40000	*
Algeria	Sugar beet		M		M		M
Armenia	Sugar beet	27000	F	30000	F	10000	F
Austria	Sugar beet	2656210		3091430		3083140
Azerbaijan	Sugar beet	141916		190680		188670
Belarus	Sugar beet	3626150		4030380		3972990
Belgium	Sugar beet	5746890		4713900		5186180
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sugar beet	0		36		0	F
Bulgaria	Sugar beet	16281		0	F	0	F
Canada	Sugar beet	762000		344700		657700
Chile	Sugar beet	1517690		1208500		1042420
China	Sugar beet	8931000		10044000		7178960
Colombia	Sugar beet	11074		29689		30043
Croatia	Sugar beet	1582610		1269540		1217040
Czech Republic	Sugar beet	2889870		2884650		3038220
Denmark	Sugar beet	2255300		2187210		1898200
Ecuador	Sugar beet	3850		3900	F	3900	F
Egypt	Sugar beet	5458210		5132590		5133510
Estonia	Sugar beet		M		M		M
Finland	Sugar beet	673100		468000		559000
France	Sugar beet	33229800		30321200		35066600
Georgia	Sugar beet	0	F	0	F	0	F
Germany	Sugar beet	25139100		23002600		25919000
Greece	Sugar beet	866741		903000		1000000	F
Hungary	Sugar beet	1692800		573160		737014
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	Sugar beet	5407240		1829300		2041280
Iraq	Sugar beet	18000		17000		18000	F
Ireland	Sugar beet	0		0		0	F
Israel	Sugar beet	0	F	0	F	0	F
Italy	Sugar beet	4670300		4390000	*	3307700
Japan	Sugar beet	4297000		4248000		3649000
Kazakhstan	Sugar beet	309400		130200		181300
Kyrgyzstan	Sugar beet	155432		98000	F	54000
Latvia	Sugar beet	10800		0		0	F
Lebanon	Sugar beet	30900		37000		37000	F
Lithuania	Sugar beet	799900		339100		682000
Mali	Sugar beet	3735		3800	F	3800	F
Mexico	Sugar beet		M		M		M
Morocco	Sugar beet	2484000		2925700		2925700	F
Netherlands	Sugar beet	5511500		5218500		5735000
Occupied Palestinian Territory	Sugar beet		M		M		M
Pakistan	Sugar beet	83600		64095		93010	*
Poland	Sugar beet	12681600		8715120		10849200
Portugal	Sugar beet	254046		137000		137000
Republic of Moldova	Sugar beet	612300		960712		337000
Romania	Sugar beet	748839		706660		816814
Russian Federation	Sugar beet	28836200		28995300		24892000
Serbia	Sugar beet	3206380		2299770		2797600
Slovakia	Sugar beet	846500		678915		898807
Slovenia	Sugar beet		M	0	F	0	F
Spain	Sugar beet	4909960		3987500		4153900
Sweden	Sugar beet	2137700		1974900		2405800
Switzerland	Sugar beet	1572930		1625220		1719710
Syrian Arab Republic	Sugar beet	1366450		1104900		732706
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	Sugar beet	7852		8000	F	4800	F
Tunisia	Sugar beet	0		0	F	0	F
Turkey	Sugar beet	12414700		15488300		17274700
Turkmenistan	Sugar beet	234000	F	234000	F	234000	F
Ukraine	Sugar beet	16977700		13437700		10067500
United Kingdom	Sugar beet	6733000		7500000		8330000
United States of America	Sugar beet	31912000		24386000		26779200
Uruguay	Sugar beet	0	F	0	F	0	F
Uzbekistan	Sugar beet	0	*	0	F	0	F
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	Sugar beet	20738		20541		20500	F
World + (Total)	Sugar beet	246535232	A	222043714	A	227158114	A