Beet Molasses

Sugar-beet molasses by sucrose, betaine and ash for yeast, feed and fermentation

Beet molasses is the syrup left when sugar beet has given up its last crystal, and it reads differently from cane on the certificate. Sucrose is almost all of the sugar (47–50%, with reducing sugars under 1–2%), which suits a yeast plant that likes sucrose and dislikes the reducing sugars and colour of blackstrap; total sugars as invert runs 48–52%; Brix 78–82°; and ash 8–12%, but higher in potassium and sodium than cane ash, so the salt load on a fermenter is what limits the dose. Betaine (3–6% on solids) is the number that only beet carries, and it has its own buyer — betaine is extracted by chromatography for feed and human nutrition, and a molasses that has been through a desugarisation plant comes out as a betaine-stripped, low-sugar stream that is a different, cheaper product. Then raffinose, total nitrogen (1.5–2.5%, higher than cane, useful to a yeast plant), pH 7.0–8.5 (beet molasses is alkaline where cane is acid) and viscosity, which is lower than cane at the same Brix. Beet molasses is darker in colour on the certificate but thinner and more matte in the tank, and it smells of beet rather than caramel, which is why it is not used for rum. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 1703 give the exporting beet countries: Canada 133,000 MT at an average USD 117/MT, Morocco 17,000 MT at USD 145 and Egypt with declared exports of USD 42.5 million (tonnage not reported), against a total heading dominated by cane at 0.76 million MT from Indonesia and 0.49 million MT from Thailand. The main beet crops — the EU, the USA, Türkiye — consume most of their molasses in domestic yeast, feed and desugarisation and export the balance, so beet parcels are smaller and more seasonal than cane, tied to the September–February campaign.

The buyer is a baker's-yeast plant, a feed mill or feed-block manufacturer, a citric acid, lysine or glutamate fermentation plant, a betaine extractor or a distillery making neutral spirit, and the first question is whether the plant was set up for beet or for cane. A yeast plant switching from beet to cane reformulates its nutrient dosing for the lower nitrogen and higher reducing sugars, and a feed mill blending both watches the potassium. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers beet molasses from Canadian, Moroccan, Egyptian, EU, US and Turkish sugar factories and trader positions against SGS or Intertek certification of Brix, sucrose, TSAI, betaine, ash, total nitrogen, pH and viscosity, with sampling at the shore tank and the ship's manifold. Parcels are structured in 3,000–15,000 MT chemical and molasses tanker lots on FOB and CFR terms, with flexitanks in 20ft containers for fermentation buyers who take a few hundred tonnes a month; because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk) that works product and chemical tankers, the freight leg is quoted alongside the cargo. Send your sucrose floor, ash and potassium ceilings, whether you need betaine declared and your discharge tank size, and we will work a campaign parcel to them.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices vegetable oil and molasses tanker chartering on LaycanDesk.