The closure of the Azucarera factory in La Bañeza, compensated by the Christmas ‘Gordo’
La Bañeza, one of the municipalities of León graced with the ‘Gordo’ of the extraordinary draw of the Christmas Lotteryhas been affected this year by the closure of the Azucarera factory, the most powerful industry in the region. The decision has led to the total closure of the beet plant and the concentration of activity in Toro (Zamora). Azucarera is owned by the British company Associated British Foods (ABF), which is also the owner of Primark.
“It’s a cascade of feelings after the bad year we’ve had,” he said. the mayor of the town, Javier Carrerasin reference to the more than 100 layoffs that have resulted from the reorganization undertaken by Azucarera and that also affects the thousands of farmers who make a living from planting beets. The restructuring of the company took place with the objective to straighten out the financial situation he was going through the group after incurring losses of 28 million last year.
The agricultural director of Sugar bowlSalomé Santos, defends in statements to ‘Economic Information’ that paying more would be “bread for today and hunger for tomorrow”, so he is committed to “balancing the value chain”. After the adjustments undertaken, they plan to leave the red numbers and recover the profitability threshold at the end of the fiscal year (August 2026), while at the same time they have guaranteed the activity of the three factories that currently operate.
At present, AB Azucarera has three factories: Toro (Zamora), Miranda de Ebro (Burgos) and Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). For this campaign, only the Zamora company will grind beets and the other two are dedicated to refining, but with good campaign forecasts in the north, where a third of the 10,000 hectares of beets have been grinded.
For the 2025-2026 campaign, expects a harvest of 792,910 tonswith an average yield of one hundred tons/hectare and a sugar production of 120,000 tons. In 2024-2025 it reached 1,736,882 tons. The data for the 2025 financial year have not been made public still but it is possible that they are negative. The workforce includes 620 permanent workers and 150 discontinuous permanent workers.
Affected by this summer’s fires
The situation worsened even more for the people of Bañeza this summer when the area suffered the impact of the enormous forest fire that originated in Molezuelas de la Carballeda, which It became one of the most devastating fires in the recent history of Spain and crossed into the province of León, affecting crops, causing evacuations and altering life in towns in the region including La Bañeza, with the suspension of festivals and community mobilization.
Number 79432, awarded 4 million euros to the series, has been sold in three municipalities in the province of León: La Bañeza, Villablino and Pola de Gordón, where disbelief and emotion have been mixed with hugs, tears and improvised toasts as soon as the most anticipated award of the year was confirmed. The prize, sung at 10:45 a.m., has been sold, among other points, in La Bañeza, in La Pola de Gordón and Villablino, in the province of León, the first with 177 series sold, the second with 50 and the third with 15.
