British Sugar has been announced as one of the high profile partner organisations for a brand new educational initiative, the Academy Excellence Awards. The Awards celebrate academic achievement by academy students in Years 11, 12 and 13 in English, humanities, mathematics, science and technology. 

The winners will be revealed at a special Awards Dinner, hosted by television presenter and newscaster, Kate Silverton, at the University of Nottingham on 6 July 2011. The winners in each category will receive £1,500 cash and an incredible “money can’t buy” prize.

British Sugar will offer both the winner and the runner up in the awards’ technology category a one-week internship at its Wissington Sugar Factory near Downham Market in Norfolk. 

Wissington is the largest beet sugar factory in the world, the most efficient in Europe and produces over 400,000 tonnes of sugar annually. Students will learn about the factory’s use of technology to transform the inputs (sugar beet) into a myriad of sustainable products. 

After meeting the Group Chief Executive, the two students will follow the “homegrown sugar story”; from beet harvesting, to sugar manufacture, to the production of co-products. They will also get to see how sugar is used to make food. At the end of the week the students will share their thoughts on how British manufacturing can be made more relevant to young people.

British Sugar is part of AB Sugar and is the leading supplier of sugar to the UK market; producing over 1 million tonnes of sugar in the UK. In addition, it produces a range of co-products, including animal feed made from sugar beet pulp, lime for soil conditioning, recycled soil for landscaping, Bioethanol, and even 140 million sustainably-grown tomatoes.

Other organisations joining British Sugar in offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences to Academy Excellence Awards-winning students are:

• Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) – Science category
• Department of Energy and Climate Change – Mathematics category
• Euro RSCG – English category
• TUI Travel – Humanities category
• University of Nottingham – Sustainability group award

For more information about the awards, visit www.academyexcellenceawards.co.uk

Global climate change, reducing environmental impacts and increasing the efficiency of food production for a growing population, are all real challenges for the British beet sugar industry. To report on how the industry is addressing these challenges within Europe, the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar have launched the UK Beet Sugar Industry Sustainability Report 2011.

The report provides an overview of how the British beet sugar industry has faced considerable change during the past five years as a consequence of EU regime reform, but how it continues to invest within research, development and process efficiency, enabling real progress towards the protection of the environment and achieving a sustainable industry for the future.

The UK Beet Sugar Industry Sustainability Report 2011 is available to view here.

Big Bend, Swaziland – Ubombo Sugar Limited’s factory expansion and power co-generation project has successfully entered its commissioning phase on time.  The major project will enable the company to increase its annual sugar production from 220 000 tonnes to more than 300 000 tonnes.  It will also significantly raise its power generation capacity by utilising biomass from cane as a supplementary fuel for the factory boilers. This will not only make the factory energy self-sufficient but allow it to export surplus electricity into Swaziland’s national grid.
 
The factory expansion project, which commenced two years ago, is linked to the government-sponsored Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP) under which a major new dam and canal system has been constructed and which has to date facilitated the new development of an initial 5 000 hectares of land for local indigenous farmers to produce cane. Some of this cane will be harvested and delivered to Ubombo in the coming 2011/12 milling season.

Thus far around 1 500 jobs have been created, while over the longer term, the project overall is expected to provide economic benefits to 28 000 people. 

Combined with further planned cane development under the LUSIP project over the next two years, along with additional cane expansions by private growers and Ubombo itself, annual cane supply to the factory is expected to increase from around 2 million tonnes to over 2.6 million tonnes.

Ubombo, in conjunction with local government agencies which provided funding for the construction of the dam, and the EU which is funding land development, has played a key role in the co-ordination and implementation of the LUSIP cane development project, whilst also assisting in the:

• Provision of seed cane for new crops;
• Sourcing of agricultural inputs (fertilizers, etc);
• Provision of agricultural extension support;
• Provision of cost-effective cane haulage to the factory;
• Training and mentorship of growers.

Ubombo’s expansion project, linked to LUSIP, is the single largest commercial investment in Swaziland and will provide long-term, sustainable job opportunities, increased foreign currency earnings and savings, and increased tax revenues.

Note:

Ubombo Sugar Limited is 60% owned by Illovo Sugar Limited with the balance of shares owned by Tibiyo Taka Ngwane (Tibiyo) on behalf of the Swazi nation.

World leading sugar business, British Sugar Group, has today unveiled a new name and visual identity – AB Sugar.

Over the past few years, AB Sugar has grown from being predominantly UK based, to one of the world’s largest sugar companies. It has operations in Africa, China and Europe. Its businesses – Azucarera Ebro, British Sugar, BSO China and Illovo - will continue to retain their individual identities.

Dr Mark Carr, Chief Executive of AB Sugar, said: “This name change reflects the change of our business over the past few years. AB Sugar’s inherent strength comes from our ability to leverage our knowledge and skills across our operations. It is this combined strength which underpins our vision as the world’s leading sugar business.”

British Sugar has celebrated 10 successful years of its horticultural business, Cornerways Nursery, with the opening of its third phase. The expansion has taken the glasshouse from 11 hectares to 18 hectares, raising production from 80 million tomatoes to around 140 million tomatoes annually, making Cornerways the UK’s largest tomato nursery, with the first fruit being harvested this month.

Cornerways Nursery benefits from its proximity to the Wissington Sugar Factory’s Combined Heat & Power (CHP) Plant, with more than two hundred and forty miles of piping carrying hot water from the CHP plant to the glasshouse to help maintain the temperatures which suit tomato plants. The nursery is recognised as the most ‘carbon friendly’ commercial greenhouse in a Horticultural Carbon Footprint Report by Bangor University and funded by the Horticultural Development Company. The nursery’s carbon dioxide footprint within the report does not include any emissions for greenhouse heating, and according to the report, heating is the primary source of emissions for all other commercial growers. In addition, carbon dioxide, a by-product from the CHP boiler, is pumped into the glasshouse to be absorbed by the plants during photosynthesis rather than vented into the atmosphere.

Seeking innovative ways to minimise waste and maximise the value from its raw materials, Cornerways supports British Sugar’s commitment to achieving environmental and social sustainability throughout its business. The opening of the expansion includes a new energy management system incorporating a 1 million litre water storage buffer tank, so when the nursery’s heating demands are low the tank stores the hot water to be reused later.

Cornerways Nursery has grown significantly since the opening of phase one in 2001, when the glasshouse covered just 5 hectares. The nursery has continued to expand by using innovative techniques to exploit the use of carbon dioxide, heat and water. The fitting of energy saving screens during phase one enabled the development of phase two during 2007 by a further 6 hectares. Finally, the new energy management system has been the catalyst for the phase three expansion.