Europe's largest sugar refiner Südzucker has announced that its French subsidiary Saint Louis Sucre will not sell its factories in Eppeville and Cagny.
Chief executive of Südzucker AG, Dr. Wolfgang Heer, said, "Saint Louis Sucre will not sell its production plants. We are not shutting down the sugar operations to offer them to other players; instead, our aim is to remove excess capacity from the market.”
At the beginning of May, French sugar beet growers said they would make an offer to Südzucker to take over the two French sugar factories.
Problem Of Overproduction
According to the group's executive board, the takeover project for the Cagny and Eppeville plants will not solve the problem of overproduction.
It is also essential that Saint Louis Sucre maintains the storage capacities at the Cagny and Eppeville sites, the company said in a statement.
Saint Louis Sucre recently announced an increase in the price of beets from the 2018 harvest, to €22.01/tonne at 16% sugar content.
The move indicates that Saint Louis Sucre values its collaboration with farmers, the company said.
Earlier, Südzucker Group reported an operating loss of €239 million in its financial year 2018/19.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
