| Marketing relationship B2B | Products General division into food, non-food and feed sectors; Native and modified starches, saccharification products, alcohols/bio-ethanol, by-products (feedstuffs and fertilisers) | Raw materials processed Corn (maize), wheat, potatoes |
| Key markets Central and Eastern Europe, principally Austria and Germany; also specialty markets, e. g., in USA and UAE | Customers Food sector: food industry; Non-food sector: paper, textile, construction chemicals, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and petroleum industries; Feed sector: feed industry | Special strengths GMO-free and strong organic focus |
Revenue in the Starch segment in 2024|25 was € 1,014.0 million, a level significantly below that of the previous year, when the war in Ukraine had led to powerful increases in market prices. Owing to the decline in raw material and energy prices, market prices for the segment’s products decreased noticeably year-on-year, which affected the selling prices obtained for the entire Starch portfolio. The revenue reduction was price-driven, as sales volumes were up on the prior year. In the ethanol business, sales prices are based on Platts price assessments. Ethanol markets were less volatile in the financial year than in 2023|24. The year’s average price of € 680 per cubic metre was approximately 8% less than one year earlier. By-product revenue (including the subcategory “other products”) followed raw material prices downward. Prices for high-protein by-products (vital gluten) in particular fell drastically. The Starch segment’s share of Group revenue was 28.9% (previous year: 30.3%).
At € 31.9 million, EBIT in the Starch segment was off significantly from the previous year. A key reason for this was the margin decline in starch and starch saccharification products driven by significantly lower sales prices for core and by-products. The shutdown of the biorefinery in Pischelsdorf, Austria, for several weeks in autumn 2024 due to flooding also had a negative impact on earnings. As a result of reduced raw material and energy input prices, the ethanol business improved its EBIT despite selling at lower prices. The equity-accounted HUNGRANA group again made a positive contribution to segment EBIT with a profit share for AGRANA of € 2.3 million (previous year: € 1.9 million), as capacity utilisation in the Hungarian joint venture improved thanks to lower raw material and energy prices. In the fourth quarter of 2024|25, a net exceptional items expense of € 6.1 million was recognised in the Starch segment within EBIT for restructuring steps in connection with the new Group strategy.
Further details on the results of the Starch business are provided in the segment report in the full version of the annual report.
After the two difficult preceding years with a significant decline in market demand, the 2024|25 financial year brought a demand recovery in some product segments relevant to AGRANA. At the same time, however, competitive pressure increased visibly because of a supply overhang, resulting in falling prices.
The generally less volatile food market was firmer overall in terms of sales volumes, but here too, vendors had to make downward price corrections in order to maintain market share – particularly for liquid saccharification products (glucose syrup and isoglucose), the price dynamics of which are tied to sugar prices. In the organic segment, there were signs of recovery in the 2024|25 financial year following an inflation-related difficult 2023|24. The growing competition in this market requires intense efforts in terms of customer orientation and securing market share.
In the past financial year, the non-food market was adversely affected by fluctuating contract call-offs from customers and temporary idling of paper machines, particularly in the paper and packaging segment. Predictability for planning purposes remained a challenge in this business. Sales to customers in the construction and adhesives segment for paper adhesives improved somewhat, helped by AGRANA's increased marketing activities at a global level.
In infant formula, AGRANA continued to focus on newly developed products to strengthen its brand presence with consumers. Thus, in addition to baby food, the company produced customised plant-based formulas – including organic ones – for young children and adults, addressing the market trend towards high-quality, vegan nutrition.
In by-products, the prices of medium-protein feeds for the animal feed industry take their cue from the quotations on grain markets. In this area, customers last year commonly covered their needs only for very short periods at a time. High-protein products (corn gluten, wheat gluten and potato protein) uniformly enjoyed more stable demand and sold at firmer prices.
In the ethanol business, sustained high import pressure from overseas (primarily the USA) heavily affected the European market for fuel ethanol. Accordingly, Platts prices struggled throughout the 2024|25 financial year despite solid demand from refineries. The average T2 FOB Rotterdam ethanol price for the financial year was about 8% below the previous year’s level.
On 31 October 2023, the amendment to the Renewable Energy Directive (now RED III) was published in the Official Journal. In it the EU sets out how renewable energy use is to be further expanded.
RED III plays a key role in realising the goals of the Green Deal – achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and a 14.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emission intensity of transport fuels by 2030. RED III not only raises the EU targets for the renewable energy share, but also aims to speed up approval procedures for the expansion of renewable power generating plants, grids and energy storage systems. This also means that some of the temporary acceleration requirements for approval procedures adopted at the end of 2022 under the EU Emergency Regulation will be permanently transposed into European law.
RED III entered into force on 20 November 2023. By 21 May 2025, the member states must implement most of the requirements of the directive nationally in the areas of transport, industry, buildings, and heating and cooling.
In 2023, E10 was gradually introduced in Austria in order to make a key contribution to the greenhouse gas reduction target.
The EU decision of October 2022 to end new registrations of vehicles with internal combustion engines as of 2035 was noted by AGRANA, but according to current assessments does not pose a relevant risk to bioethanol production. Not only is bioethanol just one of several products made under the circular economy concept of the biorefinery in Pischelsdorf, Austria, but amid the phase-out of fossil products, bioethanol will find uses beyond that in fuels.
World grain production in the 2024/25 grain marketing year (1 July to 30 June) is estimated1 by the International Grains Council (IGC) at 2,303 million tonnes, which is slightly below the prior year’s level of 2,310 million tonnes and also below expected consumption of 2,328 million tonnes. Global wheat production is forecast at 798 million tonnes (previous year: 794 million tonnes) and consumption is estimated to exceed this, at a steady 802 million tonnes (previous year: 807 million tonnes). The world’s corn (maize) production is projected at 1,218 million tonnes (previous year: 1,233 million tonnes) and the predicted consumption of corn is 1,237 million tonnes (previous year: 1,231 million tonnes). Total ending grain stocks are estimated to decrease by about 25 million tonnes to a new balance of 580 million tonnes.
From the beginning of the 2024|25 financial year, grain prices steadily moved slightly higher on average, although wheat prices eased visibly towards the end of the financial year and the gap between corn and wheat prices closed. The main reasons for the volatility on the exchanges lie in the geopolitical actions of major commodity-exporting countries, in alternative lucrative investment opportunities for investors on the commodity exchanges, in trade policy trade measures such as export and import duties, in currency parities and in the global supply and demand situation for grain and corn. At the 2024|25 balance sheet date, on Euronext Paris, wheat quoted at € 222 per tonne and corn was at € 221 per tonne (year earlier: € 191 per tonne for wheat and € 178 for corn).
1 IGC forecast of 17 April 2025.
In the 2024|25 campaign, the potato starch factory in Gmünd, Austria, processed about 175,100 tonnes of starch potatoes (previous year: 170,600 tonnes). The processing of food potatoes for the production of long-life potato products was in line with the prior-year volume. Unfavourable growing conditions led to lower yields for both starch and table potatoes.
In 2024|25, AGRANA Stärke GmbH processed approximately 4% more corn at the Austrian sites in Aschach and Pischelsdorf than one year earlier. The share of specialty corn (primarily waxy corn and organic corn) was about 27%.
Wheat milling volume at the Pischelsdorf facility for the production of wheat starch and bioethanol was up marginally from the previous year. Through delivery contracts concluded with growers in advance, AGRANA also secured ethanol wheat.
At the two Austrian sites, a total of about 1.39 million tonnes of corn and other cereals was processed in the financial year (previous year: 1.33 million tonnes).
In 2024|25, the HUNGRANA facility in Hungary significantly increased its corn milling volume from the year before. The plant in Romania also processed a higher volume of yellow corn, but the volume of specialty corn processed remained below that of the previous year.
The Starch segment invested € 33.3 million during the 2024|25 financial year (previous year: € 42.1 million). The following projects were carried out among others:
Additionally, € 31.7 million (previous year: € 29.6 million) was invested in 2024|25 in the HUNGRANA companies (stated at 100% of the total amounts for these equity-accounted joint ventures).
