Europe’s largest sugar producer Suedzucker SZUG.DE on Thursday reported a 21% jump in its third-quarter operating profit, helped by a strong sugar market, while maintaining its full-year outlook, Nasdaq reports according to Reuters.
Suedzucker reported operating profit of 268 million euros ($294.16 million) for the quarter ended Nov. 30, up from 220 million euros a year earlier.
The company said it expected high sugar prices in coming months to compensate for increased raw materials costs.
Suedzucker confirmed its 2023/24 operating profit forecast of between 900 million euros and 1 billion euros, up from 704 million euros last year.
Raw sugar futures hit 12-year highs in November as world supply tightness continued but have since dropped from their peaks.
“We remain optimistic for the full year with the world sugar market expected to remain firm. The world market is seeing a slight increase in inventories but at an overall modest level, however the fundamental picture on the world market remains favourable for us.” a Suedzucker spokesperson said.
The company expects a European sugar beet harvest of normal volumes, which will give it satisfactory supplies to sell at favourable prices, he added.
Suedzucker said it expected the European Union (EU) to remain a net sugar importer.
The company said it is concerned about the EU’s decision to allow solidarity imports from Ukraine to support the country “which has resulted in an almost uncontrolled increase in Ukrainian sugar imports by the EU“.
Before the war, the EU imported about 20,000 metric tons of Ukrainian sugar annually, he said.
“In the year 2022/23 sugar imports from Ukraine reached about 400,000 (metric) tons and for the current year 2023/24 imports of 650,000 tons are expected which is significant in an EU sugar market totalling 15 million tons a year,” the spokesperson said, adding, this created uncertainty for Suedzucker.
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