Sugar beet cultivation has particularly important characteristics from an environmental point of view. In fact, the beet’s deep root system allows it to recycle any residual nitrogen present in the soil. By its very nature, the sugar beet is a purifying plant. Its cultivation is part of the crop rotation system and acts as a break in the fallowing process, with the effect of reducing the quantity of agricultural inputs needed for all of the rotated crops. It also has modest water requirements as in France, it is cultivated in regions that benefit from adequate rainfall to ensure the plants are almost self-sufficient in terms of water.
Our 9,000 cooperative members who produce sugar beet and alfalfa are in direct contact with the land on a daily basis. They regularly adapt their practices to better control their environmental footprint.
To support them in this approach, in 2015, we set up a benchmark, CRISTAL VISION Smart Sugar Beet, to assess agricultural practices and certify that they meet the most demanding international standards in terms of sustainability, such as those set by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI). Our benchmark goes even further on many points.
The “Beet It” program, which is helping sugar beet producers improve the health of soils and ecosystems, was launched in the fall of 2020 by Danone in partnership with Cristal Union and the ‘Pour Une Agriculture du Vivant’ (For A Living Agriculture) program in the north of France.
Our investment in innovation and agronomics R&D allows us to test highly innovative production methods, with reduced environmental impact and to offer tailor-made agronomics advice to accelerate the agroecological transition of beet cultivation, promote technical routes with fewer inputs, and promote soil quality and biodiversity.
Cristal Union started by supporting its cooperative members in the creation of an accurate analysis of their farm’s carbon footprint and then through the deployment of a simplified tool for the self-diagnosis of their farm’s greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage, made available to all its members.
The MyEasyCarbon tool, which was developed in partnership with the company MyEasyFarm, is based on the Low Carbon benchmark method for field crops, validated by the Ministry for Ecological Transition. Completely free for Cristal Union cooperative members, this tool provides access, within twenty minutes, to an analysis of a farm’s net carbon footprint, calculated on the basis of GHG emissions and carbon storage in the soil, and determines what effective levers are available to improve this result.
In addition, large-scale crop rotation trials are being conducted in partnership with TERRASOLIS. The objective is to take advantage of the complementary nature of certain crops to reduce the overall environmental impact of a farm.
Cristal Union’s agronomics department supports its cooperative members in managing their use of nitrogen fertilizers: advice is adapted according to the types of soils and potential yield of each plot; linking up with service providers to set up routine measurement of nitrogen residue, before the beets are planted, in order to apply the right dose of fertilizer. The Group’s Agricultural R&D Department is also experimenting with different materials and techniques for targeted fertilization. For example, seed drills can be equipped to spread nitrogen as close as possible to the row of beets. This technique could save between 15 and 20% of fertilizer inputs.
Our teams of agronomists and our partners, research institutes, chambers of agriculture and pilot farms are experimenting with new solutions to combat biological threats by limiting the use of plant treatment products.
In 2018, Cristal Union’s teams of agronomists developed the Cristal Cerc’OAD® mobile application, so that farmers could effectively fight against beet cercosporiosis, a leaf disease caused by an insect, by scheduling their actions at the right time, i.e., as soon as the first symptoms of the disease appear.
On January 19, 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Member States were no longer permitted to use neonicotinoids in seed coatings to fight the beet yellows virus, a viral disease caused by aphids. Since 2020, alongside the Government and industry stakeholders, Cristal Union has contributed actively to the French National Research and Innovation Plan (PNRI) aimed at identifying and developing effective alternative countermeasures, with the conviction that, in the medium term, the active work of plant breeders will ensure that varietal selection yields the best results.
Until this solution is operational, our teams of agronomists have implemented a prevention plan and a mobile application, Cristal Aphids Watch, to detect the arrival of the yellowing virus-carrying aphids in crop fields as early as possible. Where yellowing virus infection has set in, targeted leaf-based insecticides will be used to control the aphids.
In 2017, we were the first to invest in the creation of an ORGANIC sugar beet production industry in France. In 2022, our ORGANIC sugar beet production was certified FAIR FOR LIFE which attests to the responsible, sustainable and fair nature of our production.
Our agronomics department supports volunteer cooperative members in their High Environmental Value (HVE) certification process by experimenting with low-input technical routes compatible with this standard.
In 2021, Cristal Union launched Operation Bee Happy, which aims to plant 1,200 hectares of pollinator-friendly areas by the summer of 2023. By 2022, 800 Cristal Union cooperative members had committed to the operation. They planted a total area of 880 hectares of bee-attracting ground cover. The operation continues in 2023!
Cristal Union is participating in a biodiversity initiative in Champagne-Ardenne, in partnership with the Symbiose association, which aims to plant and maintain strips of flowering alfalfa within crop fields in order to feed pollinators. In total, 450 hectares of strips of flowering alfalfa were sponsored by Cristal Union in 2022.
It all started in 2017, when we were the first to experiment with growing sugar beet organically in order to start a French organic beet sugar sector.
Cristal Union had already produced 5,000 tonnes of organic sugar in 2021, and aims to continue to develop its production facilities.
Today, 1,500 ha of organic beets are being grown in different geographical areas where our cooperative is present, a figure that will only grow in the years to come.
In this way, we are responding to the demand of our customers and cooperative farmers, while always exploring new practices!
Read more (in French) about this agricultural and industrial challenge
