Czech sugar beet growers protest refinery closure plans

Around 200 Czech sugar beet growers protested outside the German and British embassies in Prague on Wednesday against plans by the Anglo-German sugar refining giant Eastern Sugar to close its central European plants. Czech sugar beet growers say Eastern Sugar's closure plans will affect 22.5 percent of the country's EU-set sugar production quota in a single stroke. About 20 percent of the country's 900 sugar beet farmers fear their market will disappear. The chairman of the association of sugar beet growers of Moravia and Silesia, Josef Uchytil, says the Czech Republic is likely to be turned into a net sugar importer because of the changes.