| Marketing relationship B2B and B2C | Products Sugars and sugar specialty products, by-products (feedstuffs and fertilisers) | Raw materials processed Sugar beet, and raw sugar from sugar cane |
| Key markets Austria, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Western Balkans region), Bulgaria | Customers Downstream manufacturers (particularly confectionery, beverage and fermentation industries), food resellers (for consumer products) | Special strengths High product quality standards; product offering tailored to customer needs |
In 2024|25, revenue in the Sugar segment declined by a significant 18.8% to € 869.6 million. Although sales volumes were up slightly, the dramatic drop in sugar sales prices had a negative impact on revenue. The price decline was even more pronounced in the reseller business (wholesalers and retailers) than with industrial customers. Revenue with by-products was significantly lower than in the previous year, despite slightly higher sales volumes. The Sugar segment generated 24.7% of the Group’s revenue (previous year: 28.3%).
The EBIT loss of € 91.1 million marked a pronounced deterioration from the profit of the year before. This reflected above all the much lower sugar sales prices in the reseller channel. Severe price pressure was seen particularly in the deficit markets (CEE region), mainly due to the sugar imports from Ukraine. In addition, lower sugar content of the beet than in the previous year and challenging beet quality grades led to higher production costs in the 2024 sugar campaign. AGRANA’s share of the loss of the equity-accounted AGRANA-STUDEN group was € 1.1 million, a significant deterioration from the previous year’s share of € 1.7 million of the company's profit. The reasons for this included significantly lower sugar sales prices and reduced capacity utilisation of the refinery in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The AGRANA Group’s share of the result of the Vienna-based Beta Pura GmbH was a loss of € 0.7 million (previous year: loss of € 2.2 million). Reflected in the Sugar segment’s EBIT loss was a net exceptional items expense of € 28.3 million. This included, among other things, impairment losses of € 20.0 million on assets, as well as other expenses of about € 7.1 million in connection with the Group’s strategic realignment.
Further details on the results of the Sugar business are given in the segment report in the full version of the annual report.
In its latest (February 2025) estimate of the world sugar balance, the market research company S&P Global Commodity Insights showed a surplus of 2.8 million tonnes of sugar for the completed 2023/24 sugar marketing year (SMY), which ran from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024. The projection calls for a slight increase in global sugar consumption, outweighed by a stronger rise in production, particularly in Brazil, China and Europe. The ratio of stocks to consumption, at about 36%, is to remain low.
For SMY 2024/25, the year now underway, the estimate by S&P Global Commodity Insights is for declining production and growing consumption, with a deficit of 2.3 million tonnes. While production is expected to rise in Thailand, it is forecast to decrease in India and Brazil. The ratio of stocks to consumption would thus continue to shrink in SMY 2024/25.
For the coming SMY 2025/26, S&P Global Commodity Insights expects a slight increase in production and consumption, for a deficit of 2.4 million tonnes and thus a further decline in the ratio of stocks to consumption.
World sugar balance1 |
2025|26 | 2024|25 | 2023|24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Million tonnes, except % | SMY | SMY | SMY |
| Opening stocks | 66.5 | 68.5 | 66.5 |
| Production | 192.3 | 190.0 | 192.6 |
| Consumption | (194.6) | (192.3) | (189.8) |
| Net exports/imports | 0.0 | 0.3 | (0.8) |
| Closing stocks | 64.2 | 66.5 | 68.5 |
| In % of consumption | 33.0 | 34.6 | 36.1 |
1 S&P Global Commodity Insights; estimate of the World Sugar Balance, dated 20 February 2025.
As the global supply relies heavily on Brazil and India, developments in these countries, such as weather conditions, can strongly affect the world sugar balance and cause high volatility in the market. Additional volatility is created by geopolitical uncertainty, such as over the recent change in US policy introduced by the Trump administration.
World market prices for white and raw sugar fell continually since the beginning of the 2024|25 financial year, reaching a 24-month low on 20 August 2024. Subsequently, sugar cane fires in Brazil led to a slight price recovery before sugar prices decreased steadily again to the end of the financial year.
On 28 February 2025, white sugar quoted at US$ 532.6 per tonne and raw sugar stood at US$ 408.3 (29 February 2024: US$ 615.1 and US$ 478.2 per tonne, respectively).
The EU sugar balance as of January 2025 shows an increase in production to 15.6 million tonnes for the completed 2023/24 sugar marketing year (SMY 2022/23: 14.6 million tonnes) with a slight increase in acreage and high beet yields, but low sugar content. EU consumption was down slightly from the year before.
For SMY 2024/25, the year now underway, sugar production in the EU is expected to grow to 16.6 million tonnes. This predicted increase is driven largely by beet acreage expansion of about 6% and a forecast of average yields. The European Commission expects consumption to recover relative to the previous year. Market observers predict a significant reduction in beet acreage in the EU for the 2025 crop year.
According to EU price reporting, the average white sugar price in the EU peaked at € 856 per tonne in December 2023. Since then, reported prices declined continually to € 758 per tonne by the end of the past sugar marketing year (September 2024). At the beginning of the new sugar marketing year, prices fell significantly further, dropping to € 541 per tonne by February 2025 (the date of the latest available publication). Within the EU, there are significant regional price differences between the deficit and surplus regions. Imports from Ukraine to Romania (a deficit region and part of AGRANA’s core market) resulted in a sharp drop in sales volumes and prices there.
The EU’s protective mechanism that took effect on 6 June 2024 to limit duty-free sugar imports from Ukraine led to a reduction in those imports. Imports from Ukraine were capped at about 263,000 tonnes for the 2024 calendar year and around 109,000 tonnes for the first five months of 2025. In the 2023 calendar year, about 495,000 tonnes of sugar were exported from Ukraine to the EU. The import cap for 2024 was reached in June of that year and the EU’s tariffs on imports from Ukraine were therefore reintroduced on 2 July 2024.
The EU and Ukraine are currently reviewing a more stringent and comprehensive free trade agreement that is to apply from June 2025. One of the issues under discussion is whether a limited tariff quota will be set.
In addition, the EU is in talks about possible free trade agreements with various countries and communities of states. Should sugar and sugar-containing goods not be grouped as sensitive products (contrary to existing trade practice), additional volumes of sugar could in future be imported into the EU with preferential tariff treatment.
At the beginning of December 2024, the European Commission and the Mercosur countries announced the conclusion of negotiations for the EU-Mercosur agreement. Should the agreement be ratified by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, it can take effect in the 2026|27 sugar marketing year at the earliest.
The sugar beet acreage of the approximately 5,700 AGRANA contract farmers (previous year: about 5,500 farmers) in the 2024 crop year was about 99,000 hectares, a significant increase from the prior crop year’s 86,000 hectares. Growing conditions in 2024 were characterised by favourable weather in spring and dry summer months. The second half of the growing season was marked by a September of exceptionally heavy rain. A period of dry, cold weather followed from mid-October.
As a result of the challenging weather conditions – extreme heat followed by record rainfall – Cercospora leaf disease was more prevalent than in the previous years. Even varieties resistant to leaf disease suffered considerable loss of leaf area, resulting in regrowth that reduced the sugar content of the beets, which fell to a historic low.
The occurrence of beet weevil was largely brought under control, thanks to a seed treatment applied under an emergency authorisation, and caused only a minor loss of acreage. However, the incidence of beet rot increased, particularly in the eastern growing regions: Exacerbated by high temperatures and low rainfall, diseases such as stolbur and rubbery taproot disease proliferated, which cause beet rot and are transmitted by various species of plant hopper.
The growing conditions described were the key reason for a mean sugar content of only 14.6% (previous year: 16.2%), well below the multi-year average. Around 6.5 million tonnes of sugar beet (previous year: 5.7 million tonnes) were harvested from a total area of about 97,000 hectares, corresponding to a steady average yield of 67 tonnes per hectare (previous year: 67 tonnes per hectare).
AGRANA’s seven beet sugar factories processed a combined daily average of slightly more than 48,400 tonnes of beet during the campaign (previous year: 48,200 tonnes). Thanks to the higher beet quantity, the factories produced a total of 816,000 tonnes of conventional sugar (previous year: 806,000 tonnes), in a campaign averaging 136 days in length (previous year: 119 days). Additionally, at the plant in Hrušovany, Czech Republic, about 4,100 tonnes of organic sugar were produced in an 11-day separate organic campaign. As a result of the Sugar segment’s total beet processing volume, the average capacity utilisation of the sugar factories was 113% (previous year: 99%).
At the plant in Tulln, Austria, a molasses desugarisation facility was operated year-round. In addition to thick juice and liquid betaine, it produced fertiliser molasses. AGRANA also operates two raw cane sugar refineries, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania; in the 2024|25 financial year, these produced a total of about 73,000 tonnes of white sugar (previous year: about 286,000 tonnes).
In the Sugar segment, AGRANA invested € 28.4 million (previous year: € 34.4 million) during the 2024|25 financial year, primarily for the following projects:
Additionally in 2024|25, € 1.0 million (previous year: € 3.3 million) was invested in the equity-accounted joint ventures (the AGRANA-STUDEN group and Beta Pura GmbH, Vienna; values for these entities are stated at 100% of the total).
