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Since enough farmers have entered into contracts with Agrana, Agrana’s supervisory board unanimously decided on Friday not to close the Leopoldsdorf sugar factory in the next year. The factory’s 150 jobs will be preserved. Agrana’s most famous product is “Viennese sugar”.
Among others, the Minister of Agriculture, Elisabeth Köstinger, the Governor of Lower Austria, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the head of the supervisory board of Agrana-Beteiligungs AG, Erwin Hameseder and the CEO of Agrana, Johann Marihart, came to announce the good news.
Politicians at the federal and state levels have worked hard to find a solution. Beet summits were organized. Beet growers have three-year contracts. The agreement also includes a re-cultivation bonus of 250 euros per hectare if the weevil destroys the first planting. The money comes from the federal budget. The seeds are provided by Agrana.
There have been massive crop failures in recent years, which have hit beet growers hard. Then there was the low price of sugar. Hence the skepticism about whether to continue growing beets or not. Framework conditions, such as a re-cultivation bonus, ultimately motivated beet growers to continue. “It is important that there is security,” stressed on Friday the president of the Austrian beet growers, Ernst Karpfinger.
However, there is no guarantee that the weevil will not start over on a large scale to destroy the crop. “If the weevil devours 20,000 hectares, then we face the same problem again,” says Marihart. Due to the humid climate, Agrana and the beet growers are optimistic that damage to the field will be limited next year.
The Crown crisis in particular has shown that a high degree of food self-sufficiency makes sense.
