The beet business

With 5 affiliate cooperatives, Cristal Union today covers 6,000 beet planters. More than 90% of them are members. Their beet production spans nearly 75,000 ha, i.e. almost 20% of the beet farmlands in France.

Plant Water Economy

Agronomic performance – Quality approach

Cristal Union’s geographical coverage boasts very high agronomic potential.
Our agronomics department aims to improve performance continuously at the lowest cost, while ensuring the broadest distribution for all beet planters. Our spring and winter agronomics meetings are attended every year by a large number of planters and make a substantial contribution to achieving this goal.

The development of partnerships with technical organizations and suppliers of seed and plant protection has enabled us to rationalize experimentation, which is crucial to remaining on the forefront of technological advances.
Quality and progress approach to beet farming: anticipate to meet our customers’ expectations.
Launched in 2002, our quality approach to beet farming entered a new phase in 2004: to become members, planters were required to perform a self-assessment. This simple process is used to determine whether the farm’s operations comply with the best farming and environmental practices that apply to beet production and to initiate a plan for progress.

With the Group’s Quality Commission monitoring the system, we can meet the expectations of our customers, who require more product traceability and greater transparency for the raw materials used in farming. It is also in line with food health and safety regulations. We shall pursue the implementation of this self-assessment and extend it to all of our planters.

Communication with planters

In a rapidly changing environment, we constantly promote close communication with each planter. As such, we encourage dialogue through various technical meetings, the journal “Racines et Cultures” (Roots and Farming), “Infos Fax” (Fax News) and our internet system, which is gradually being developed into an essential communication tool.

Field contacts are also important to us. They are key in maintaining cohesion within our cooperative company and in effectively managing the preparation of the beet farming campaign and any particular issues. That is on-site meetings are organized for all planters at the end of campaigns by technicians from the beet farming and agronomics departments from the Group’s four plants.