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Beet Crop Raises Sugar Hopes

1948 , Felsted (Essex)

Cat no. 771

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A newsreel item on the importance of the post-war sugar beet crop.

Sugar beet arrives by lorry through the factory gates at the British Sugar Corporation Factory at Felstead, Essex, and is unloaded in the factory yard. On a farm, a mechanical harvester lifts the beet. There are 550 such harvesters at work in the country. At the factory, samples of washed beet are analysed for sugar content; the average is 2.5 ounces per beet. There are scenes from the laboratories. Sugar extraction is shown in brief, followed by shots of fine white sugar after it has been dried. A warehouse is full of sacks of sugar; 500,000 tons will be produced in the year. A lorry load leaves the plant.

Featured Buildings

British Sugar Corporation Factory, Felstead

Keywords

Agriculture; Factory; Farm machinery; Food science; Sugar beet; Sugar refining; World War II

Other Places

Felstead

Background Information

The following information is from www.ukagriculture.com: "The beet industry took off here in the 1920s for two main reasons: firstly to make Britain more self-sufficient in sugar production after severe shortages during World War I (1914-1918); and secondly to boost the depressed agricultural industry by giving farmers the opportunity to grow a valuable cash crop. Today some 8,500 farmers are responsible for growing the crop which extends to around 170,000 hectares. The crop yields around 10 million tonnes of fresh beet that produces 1.4 million tonnes of sugar and 750,000 tonnes of animal feed." The crop was to become equally important during and after World War II.

Manifestations

Beet Crop Raises Sugar Hopes

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