Review of the 2021 sugar beet campaign

The campaign is the time when beet is harvested and processed. It begins at the end of September and lasts 80 to 100 days. During this time, a complex logistics project is ramped up for transportation to the sugar factories. The rail wagons are loaded by the farmers at the loading points and then transported by rail. TR Trans Rail AG has been Schweizer Zucker AG's sole national logistics partner for rail transportation since the 2021 season.

Over the last three months, 415 national beet trains with around 420,000 tons of beet were transported to the sugar factories in Aarberg and Frauenfeld. In addition to the national orders, 12 international trains with 20,000 tons of organic beet from Straubing and 73 trains with around 116,000 tons of conventional sugar beet from Wismar were also imported.

Shortly before Christmas, the last load of beet arrived at the Frauenfeld sugar factory. The wagon inspectors were on site at the two sugar factories for 100 days, checking over 500 trains during this time.

"Transport by rail and cooperation with the partners involved generally worked smoothly. Thanks to the rail transports, around 90,000 kilometers of road were saved. That corresponds to a distance equivalent to two circumnavigations of the earth," explains Peter Koch, responsible for sugar beet transportation in the east.

Thanks to the experience of previous campaigns and meticulous planning and preparation, national and international traffic was handled largely without disruption. It was also possible to optimize the capacity utilization of the two plants as much as possible thanks to the flexibility of everyone involved.