The market-leading rail freight company will transport a total of 450-470 thousand tonnes of sugar beet to Hungary's only sugar factory by the end of January 2024. RCH will forward the raw material by train, the remaining roughly 50% will be transported on road.
This year, Hungarian farmers sowed 14 thousand hectares of sugar beets for the factory, considerably more than last year. The favourable weather up to August has resulted in a high average yield, estimated to around 62-65 tonnes per hectare, with an average sugar content expected.
Four sugar beet trains a day
During the planned 125-130 days of the campaign, the company's trains will cover a total of more than 150 thousand kilometers, with an average of four sugar beet trains travelling on the rail network per day. It is not uncommon for trains of Rail Cargo Hungaria to transport harvested crop from more than 450 kilometers distance.
Difficult external conditions
Although the price of electricity for traction decreased compared to last year's campaign period, it is still several times higher than in previous years. In addition, a number of track reconstruction works on the railway infrastructure make rail transport more difficult and expensive than road transport, which means another challenge for RCH. Managing the campaign requires a high level of logistical organisation in order for RCH to be able to cope with the increased transport workload.