A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (Beta vulgaris).

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In 2024, world production of sugar beets was 294 million tonnes, led by Russia and Germany. Commercially, if the syrup has a dextrose equivalency (DE) above 30, the product has to be hydrolyzed and converted to a high-fructose syrup, much like high-fructose corn syrup, or isoglucose syrup in the EU.

Uridine

Uridine can be isolated from sugar beet.

Alternative fuel

BP and Associated British Foods plan to use agricultural surpluses of sugar beet to produce biobutanol in East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

The feedstock-to-yield ratio for sugarbeet is 56:9. Therefore, it takes 6.22 kg of sugar beet to produce 1 kg of ethanol (approximately 1.27 L at room temperature). In 2006 it was found that producing ethanol from sugar beet or cane became profitable when the market price for ethanol were close to $4 per U.S. gallon.

  • How Beet Sugar is Made
  • Guardian (UK) article on how sugar beet can be used for fuel
  • Sugar beet culture in the northern Great Plains area hosted by the University of North Texas Government Documents Department
  • US court bans GM sugar beet: Cultivation to take place under controlled conditions?
  • "Sugar From Beets" Popular Science Monthly, March 1935
  • "Sugar & the Rise of the Plantation System"| access-date = 13 May 2026