Palestine housewives and industries will be using locally-produced sugar by next summer as a result of plans for large-scale cultivation of both cane and beet sugar, announced today by the Jewish National Fund headquarters.
Disclosing that prolonged experiments with both sugar beets and sugar cane in the Jezreel and Jordan valleys have finally been crowned with success, the J.N.F. office declared that 1,200 to 1,600 dunams of laud in the Ein Harod, Beisan and eastern Emek areas will be planted in beets very shortly. A factory for the conversion of beet sugar is now being established and it is expected to produce 750 to 1,000 tons of sugar annually. An initial investment of $60,000 to $80,000 will be necessary for plant facilities.
The raw sugar produced by the new factory will be useable only for the manufacture of candies, jams, preserves and similar products. Facilities for refining the sugar for table use will have to wait on further industrial development and experience. In addition to the raw sugar, however, there will be valuable byproducts such as molasses, alcohol from fermented sugar mash and cattle fodder.
Although it has been known for some time that sugar beets could be grown in the humid area of central Palestine, no large-scale planting has ever been undertaken heretofore. The sugar cane plantations on the J.N.F. land will be the first of their kind in the history of Palestine.
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