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SUGAR PRODUCER Dobrovice, a small town in Central Bohemia, has seen a lot of festivities lately. Thanks to the cooperation between a major traditional company—Cukrovary a lihovary TTD, a.s.—and the Dobrovice town hall, a Sugar and Alcohol Industry, Beet Growing and Dobrovice Town Mu- seum was inaugurated there. The Museum has been installed in a thoroughly refurbished farming court attached to a castle, to which castle the oldest still working sugar factory in Central Europe has been built in since 1831. The Dobrovice sugar factory was founded by the princes of Thurn Taxis; with its 14,000- mt of beet daily processing capacity, it is now the largest sugar factory in Central Europe. The visitor first enters a large vaulted multifunctional hall, and then passes through four exposition halls. They will find there many models, maps, photos, posters, and tools—both agricultural and industrial. They will thus learn that, at the beginning of the 20th Century, Czechoslo- vakia used to have 250 sugar factories and to make 17 percent of the world’s sugar production, i.e., more than France and Belgium taken together. They will find a 1558 fresco showing sugarbeet, learn that ON DISPLAY IN BOHEMIA Museum resides near historic European Sugar Factory Dobrovice had developed its own sugar- beet genetics 100 years ago, and that TTD still make sugar loafs. The Museum is structured in three main expositions: the sugar-industry one presents sugar production and machinery history. You can see moulds, sugar loafs, various types of lump sugar, “Bridge” sugar dies, as well as a huge sugar lump—1m to a side. Visitors will also be able to look into a 19th century sugar laboratory. The sugarbeet growing development in what is today the Czech Republic, biologi- cal composition, breeding, varieties and parasites of beet are presented to visitors in the sugarbeet display. It shows seed samples, beet models, as well as tools nec- essary for beet growing. A portion of the exposition is also concerned with an exotic crop—sugar cane. During the sugarbeet processing campaign (September–December), the Dobrovice Museum proposes a special feature that makes it different from any other similar place: visiting a working sugar factory. Visitors will thus be able to compare their freshly acquired theoretical and historical knowledge with some modern reality. n Editor’s note: Check out the photos with the magazines and notice the August/September 2009 issue resting in the glass case. www.SugarProducer.com 17