Nordzucker Post 4/2025 - 30 October 2025

Success is teamwork – even in challenging times

Dear readers, 

The beet campaign has been running at full speed since September. Conditions in most growing regions are good, and processing is stable and at a high level in all European factories. We currently expect above-average beet yields and sugar contents compared to the five-year average. The quality of the beets has also been good so far. 

Unfortunately, there is a downside to this good news. The satisfaction with the campaign is clouded by the economic conditions: after a brief recovery due to reductions in cultivation areas, sugar prices in the EU are once again under severe pressure this year. Price increases are currently not foreseeable either in the EU or on the world market. The reasons for this are the second above-average harvest in a row in the EU and good harvests in other major producing countries such as Brazil, India and Thailand. 

The consequences are reflected in the figures for the first half of the year: Nordzucker Group’s sales are below the previous year’s level, and we are recording a loss in operating profit. Despite all the progress made by our excellence initiatives and optimisations, we expect a negative result for the 2025/2026 financial year as a whole. Currently, the outlook for the following financial year also remains challenging. Since the end of the quota system in the EU, it has been clear to us that volatility in the markets due to market cycles can occasionally lead to a negative result.  

We have prepared for this in recent years, and Nordzucker is in a position to deal with such a situation thanks to its continued strong financial position. However, our goal was and remains to avoid two consecutive years of losses by all means, and we will make every effort to achieve this goal. This is important in order to ensure a robust equity base in the long term. 

A competitive and sustainable core business in Germany and our other countries in the EU is essential for us. With our excellence initiatives, we aim to achieve savings and optimisations of around 100 million Euro in the coming years. At the same time, we are focusing on growth, particularly in the cane sugar business and also in the area of alternative proteins. 

All partners along the value chain contribute to ensuring that sugar beet remains attractive and offers good economic prospects. Together, we will have to find ways to better deal with uncertainties resulting from unpredictable weather conditions – for example, through more flexible volume control within the framework of beet contracts. In addition to internal cost optimisation measures, this also includes greater flexibility in beet prices to secure our results, dividends and the financial stability of Nordzucker. 

Economical and sustainable beet cultivation can only be achieved by working together. One example of this is the fight against plant diseases such as the SBR complex*. We are working on countermeasures together with the agricultural sector, associations, politicians and scientists. Even though the impact on this year’s harvest is still minor at present, the spread of the reed glasswing cicada, which transmits the disease, remains one of the greatest threats to sugar beet cultivation. During a visit to the model region in Saxony-Anhalt at the end of October, we had the opportunity to discuss the use of available plant protection products, long-term research funding and appropriate framework conditions for crop rotation adjustments with the German Federal Minister of Agriculture Alois Rainer. 

As I said, Nordzucker can cope with the current difficult economic situation. In concrete terms, this means that we are staying on course, continuing to invest in the modernisation of our plants and consistently pursuing our GoGreen programme for the decarbonisation of production in our sugar factories by 2050 at the latest. Our previous and planned investments – including those in decarbonisation in our plants and in the field – are based solely on economic efficiency and ensuring our marketability. In this way, we are strengthening our competitiveness in a volatile environment and securing the future of sugar beet cultivation. 

With kind regards 
Lars Gorissen, CEO 

*SBR complex stands for Syndrome Basses Richesses (SBR) in combination with Stolbur. It can severely impair the processability and sugar content of sugar beets as well as their storability.