Food - Drink
Most Of The World's Sugar Beets Come From This Country
By NATASHA BAILEY
When a beet is mentioned, most people think of a red root vegetable that is used in salads, but sugar beets are another variety that is farmed for our sweet treats. Sugar beets store sugar in their roots to survive the winter, so the sugar is taken before the cold season—but that begs the question of where most beets in the world spend their winters.
Russia may seem to be a land of frost and ice, but the country grows a lot of food and produced 14% of the world's sugar beets in 2022, making it the largest producer. Over the last few decades, the country has been expanding its agricultural industry with technological advancements, and Russia now controls much of our global food production.
North America also produces sugar beets, but Russia widely outpaces the continent in production. The juice from the sugar beets can make white and brown sugar and molasses, so odds are if you're using sugar as a sweetener in your tea, jam, or bread, a good portion of the sweet stuff probably came from a beet.