THE annual odour of processed sugar beet can now be sniffed all around York.

Some loath it, a few love it, but perfume or pong, one thing is for sure. That sweet, cloying smell in the air over the city signals one thing - The Campaign has begun.

The Campaign, named after Napoleon Bonaparte's bid to vanquish the Russians before the onslaught of winter, is British Sugar's annual 22-week rush both to harvest and process the beet crop before the frost can begin its damage.

It means the caramelised stream of vapour from the mighty landmark chimney in the animal feed drying plant at the Boroughbridge Road factory in York will soon be gushing at full throttle.

It is hard to know what to do about it.

In recent years British Sugar has spent about £500,000 in researching ways of reducing the vapour emissions.

High-efficiency cyclones in the plant which filter any dust emanating from the chimney were clearly not enough. New techniques such as chemically treating the emissions also failed to staunch the stench.

But under new environment regulation laws called IPPC, British Sugar is going to be forced to win the war of the whiff - and soon.

IPPC stands for Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control under which British Sugar and the rest of the food industry has had to submit an application to the Environment Agency to continue operating.

Permits are then issued on the basis of meeting environmental requirements.

Brian Horrobin, environmental manager for British Sugar, said: "Odour has been something of a debate for a few years. We are expecting that our permit will contain some specific things that we have to achieve and the aroma emission from the drying plant at York is one of them."

He said while some efforts to prevent the smell had proved unsuccessful, British Sugar had always been committed to finding a way through.

Not that there appeared to be any danger. The chimney gushed mostly water vapour. He said: "All emissions have to be looked at very carefully, but the only complaints we have received over a long period is an aversion to the odour. There is no record of actual physical damage.

"We await our permit in January and we will explore the options and come up with a solution that will satisfy the Environment Agency, which is well aware of the sensitivity in York. We will be asked to commit to a further period of study on a timescale to their satisfaction."

Was there a danger that the licence could be withdrawn if they fail to de-whiff the chimney? "I have not even considered a shutdown. I assume that we will deliver what they expect," he said.

Meanwhile, change is unlikely to come in time for this year's Campaign.

Already an extra 35 seasonal staff have been taken on at York to add to the factory's 110 permanent workforce - and the region's 1,300 beet growers, and hauliers are gearing themselves up to transport 1.35 million tonnes of raw beet to the mighty, steaming, hissing, roaring plant.

Based on the first deliveries, general manager Steve Williams is predicting a Campaign as successful as last year's.

He points out that the sugar content of this year's beet, helped by recent sunny conditions, is at 17.4 per cent, slightly higher than 2004. By early February the raw beet will translate into 190,000 tonnes of sugar bound for industrial users throughout the UK, and 100,000 tonnes of animal feed.

That is slightly less than 2004 but, points out Mr Williams, because of past improvements in agricultural yields, not quite as many acres were planted out in the York area.

As laden lorries queued at the reception centre, Mr Williams gave a Campaign battle cry.

"In York we have a fabulous team of growers, employees and support service suppliers and together we can build on the success of recent Campaigns."

Updated: 10:20 Friday, September 30, 2005