Nordzucker Post 2/2025 - 28 May 2025

Positive business results despite tense market conditions – focus future

Dear readers, 

Despite a tense market environment, we closed the past financial year with a positive result. Record harvests across Europe led to a sharper decline in sugar prices in the EU. Lower consumer demand and sugar volumes imported to the European market from Ukraine also had an effect. This makes our clearly positive consolidated result all the more gratifying – supported by our competitive cost structure and good market position, especially in Scandinavia. Mackay Sugar in Australia also made another positive contribution to the result.  

In the EU, we observed a reduction in beet cultivation areas. We also contributed here and worked with our growers to reduce the area under beet cultivation. We do not expect significant price increases and an improved earnings situation until the start of the new sugar marketing year in October 2025 at the earliest. Accordingly, we have budgeted for a negative result in the lower double-digit million range for the current financial year. Thanks to the expected price recovery and our comprehensive optimisation measures, we could still improve the result for the current financial year compared with the budget. At the same time, we are monitoring the development of the beet diseases SBR and Stolbur with concern.  

After early sowing, the initial development of the beet was encouraging. Regional rainfall at the end of April ensured good soil moisture. We expect the rows to close in the next few days. Many beet fields have been relatively dry for quite some time. The weather conditions in the coming days and weeks will therefore determine how the beet crop develops.

While beet growth is still at an early stage, our subsidiary Mackay Sugar in Australia will start processing sugar cane in June. Here, we expect volumes to be in line with the previous year. 

Our goal remains to be successful even in highly volatile markets. We have therefore further developed and sharpened our corporate strategy. Under the heading Fields for Growth, we will focus on two key areas in the future. Firstly, we will strengthen the profitability of our core business by investing in sustainability and optimising our cost structure through excellence projects. This also includes ambitiously pursuing our measures to decarbonise production and beet cultivation. Secondly, we are diversifying our business outside the EU sugar market. 

Due to market changes, we have decided to halt our plans to build our own production site in Groß Munzel, Lower Saxony, for protein concentrates and texturates from peas. We are currently revising our market entry strategy for alternative proteins, with a focus on potential partnerships and acquisition projects. 

I would particularly like to recommend our latest annual report, which contains all the facts and figures relating to the annual financial statements and provides exciting insights into ongoing projects.  

 Kind regards, 

Lars Gorissen, CEO