| Marketing relationship B2B and B2C | Products Sugars and sugar speciality products, by-products (feedstuffs and fertilisers) | Raw materials processed Primarily sugar beet; also some raw sugar from sugar cane |
| Key markets Austria, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Western Balkans region), Bulgaria (7 production sites) The leading sugar company in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe |
Customers Downstream manufacturers (particularly the confectionary and beverage sectors), food resellers (for consumers) | Special strengths High product quality standards; product offering tailored to customer needs (conventional and organic) |
Revenue of the ACS – Sugar segment in 2025|26, at € 570.6 million, represented a significant reduction from one year earlier. While sugar volumes sold to industrial customers were relatively stable, volumes in the reseller channel declined very significantly. Another key reason for the revenue decline was a sharp drop in sugar sales prices in the industrial market. The ACS – Sugar segment’s share of Group revenue was 17.6% (previous year: 23.9%).
The EBIT result was a loss of € 106.6 million, representing a deterioration from the year before due to exceptional items. Since as early as the beginning of the 2025|26 financial year, the savings and optimisation measures taken proved beneficial for the trend in the metric “operating loss before exceptional items and results of equity-accounted joint ventures”, which at € 30.6 million was less strongly negative than one year earlier (previous year: loss of € 48.9 million). This improvement occurred against the backdrop of continuing very challenging conditions in the sugar business: Price pressure was high in the deficit markets (Central & Eastern Europe region), which had a negative impact on sales volumes with resellers. The significantly lower sugar sales prices in the industrial sector also detracted from margins. On the other hand, the successful beet harvest in the 2025 campaign and the high quality of the beet as a raw material led to lower production costs. AGRANA’s share of the loss of the equity-accounted companies was € 4.5 million, a very significant deterioration from the previous year’s loss share of € 1.8 million. The reasons for this included significantly lower sugar sales prices and reduced capacity utilisation of the AGRANA-STUDEN refinery in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ACS – Sugar segment’s EBIT loss included a net exceptional items expense of € 71.3 million. This comprised, among other things, asset impairment losses of € 46.0 million, as well as expenses of about € 13.7 million in connection with the restructuring of the sugar business.
Further details on the results of the ACS – Sugar segment are provided in the segment report in the full version of the annual report.
In its estimate of the world sugar balance dated 1 April 2026, the market research firm S&P Global showed a deficit of about 2.6 million tonnes of sugar for the completed 2024/25 sugar marketing year (SMY), which ran from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. The main reason for this was lower-than-expected sugar production in India. For the current SMY 2025/26, however, S&P Global forecasts a small surplus of about 0.8 million tonnes in the world's sugar stocks. This is due to favourable weather conditions in all major producer regions (particularly in Asia), which led to higher sugar production. For the coming SMY 2026/27, S&P Global is projecting a world sugar market surplus of about 1.8 million tonnes.
World sugar balance1 |
2026|27 | 2025|26 | 2024|25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Million tonnes, except % | SMY | SMY | SMY |
| Opening stocks | 65.9 | 69.8 | 73.3 |
| Production | 193.8 | 191.1 | 186.9 |
| Consumption | (192.0) | (190.4) | (189.5) |
| Net exports/imports | (0.8) | (4.6) | (0.9) |
| Closing stocks | 66.9 | 65.9 | 69.8 |
| In % of consumption | 34.8 | 34.6 | 36.8 |
1 Estimate of the world sugar balance, dated 1 April 2026 (S&P Global).
As global supply relies heavily on Brazil, India and Thailand, developments in these countries, such as weather conditions, can strongly affect the world sugar balance and lead to high volatility in the market. Additional volatility is triggered by geopolitical uncertainty created by factors such as US trade policy and armed conflicts.
World market prices for white and raw sugar fell continually from the beginning of the 2025|26 financial year, reaching a five-year low in February 2026. The decline was driven by the global surplus situation.
At the end of the financial year, white sugar quoted at US$ 407.7 per tonne and raw sugar stood at US$ 306.2 per tonne (28 February 2025: US$ 532.6 and US$ 408.3 per tonne, respectively).
The recent armed conflict in the Middle East and the expectation of rising oil and energy prices could boost the relative competitiveness of ethanol. This could strengthen the incentive for increasing the use of sugarcane for bioethanol production, which would potentially alter the global balance of supply and demand in the sugar market.
The EU sugar balance estimate for SMY 2024/25 published in December 2025 shows a significant increase in production to 16.6 million tonnes (SMY 2023/24: about 15.6 million tonnes). The increase resulted largely from a significant expansion in beet planting acreage, particularly in Central and Northern Europe. This trend was supported by generally average to good yields, although sugar content varied from region to region. EU sugar consumption in SMY 2024/25 was stable to slightly declining, reflecting the structural weakness in demand resulting from health-related consumption trends and substitution with alternative sweeteners.
For the current SMY 2025/26, EU sugar production is expected to decrease to about 16.0 million tonnes. This is primarily due to a year-on-year reduction of about 10% in the area under beet cultivation. Improved yields resulting from favourable weather conditions are partially counteracting the production decline. At the same time, disease and pest infestations, especially in parts of Germany, France and Eastern Europe, continue to pose a potential risk. EU sugar consumption is forecast to remain broadly stable at about 13.7 million tonnes for the SMY 2025/26, with no material recovery in demand expected. Market observers are projecting further reductions in acreage for the 2026 crop year, primarily driven by the continuing pressure on margins for beet growers.
Given the environment of high sugar production, less-favourable export parity and stagnating demand, the downward price trend for white sugar in the EU continued. The price of sugar (food and non-food, ex works) published by the European Commission had fallen significantly to € 619 per tonne at the start of SMY 2024/25 in October 2024. Since then, it has continued to decline, reaching € 550 per tonne at the beginning of the 2025|26 financial year in March 2025 and € 516 per tonne in January 2026 (the latest published price at the time of writing), its lowest level since September 2022. Within the EU, significant regional price differences exist 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.
In early June 2025, the quota for duty-free imports from Ukraine to the EU was reduced back to the level of 20,070 tonnes per year set out in the original 2014 Association Agreement. Following this reduction, agreement was reached quickly, at the end of June 2025, in the negotiations between the European Commission and Ukraine on the revision of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The revised agreement provides for an increase in the annual duty-free quota for sugar from 20,070 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes per year. For 2025 the agreement was applied on a pro rata basis for seven months, and the full annual duty-free import quota of 100,000 tonnes applies from 2026.
On 7 January 2026, the EU Council of Ministers approved the Mercosur agreement by a qualified majority, following 25 years of negotiations. The agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) consists of a partnership agreement and an interim trade agreement; it was signed on 17 January 2026 in Paraguay.
For the interim trade agreement to enter into force in the regular way, it would have required approval by a simple majority in the European Parliament. As this body in its plenary session on 21 January 2026 voted in favour of a motion to review the compatibility of the Mercosur Agreement with the EU Treaties, this approval will now be significantly delayed. The review process by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) could take up to two years and significantly delay the final ratification with the Mercosur states. Notwithstanding the legal review, the provisional trade agreement was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 27 February 2026. At the same time, the European Commission has announced its intention to apply the trade rules provisionally, without awaiting the ECJ’s decision. Should the ECJ rule that the agreement is incompatible with EU law, it must be amended before it can enter into force on a final basis. For the sugar market, the agreement means that the tariff on 180,000 tonnes of Brazil’s existing import quota will be reduced from € 98 per tonne to zero, and that Paraguay will receive a new duty-free import quota of 10,000 tonnes of raw cane sugar per year for refining.
At the end of January 2026, the EU and India completed negotiations for the establishment of a new free trade zone. Tariffs on nearly all exports of goods from the EU to India are to be lowered or eliminated, thus doubling goods exports by 2032. Sensitive economic sectors are not included in the agreement; vulnerable European agricultural sectors will be fully protected, and products such as beef, poultry, rice and sugar will be completely exempt from liberalisation under the agreement. The agreement can only be signed once the text has been legally reviewed and translated into all official EU languages. It must then be approved by the EU member states and the European Parliament.
Following eight years of negotiations, the EU and Australia at the end of March 2026 concluded a free trade agreement that provides full duty-free access for EU agricultural exports to Australia, while limiting Australia's access to the EU market through quotas, sustainability requirements and safeguard mechanisms. In the sugar sector, Australia is granted duty-free quotas of a total of 44,925 tonnes of raw cane sugar and 10,000 tonnes of (sugar-derived) ethanol, with safeguards in place for sensitive EU markets. The signing is expected for the end of 2026 or early 2027, subject to the formal ratification procedures.
Also relevant to the sugar market is a prospective trade agreement with Thailand, for which talks have resumed, but are still at an early stage. As well, with effect from 1 January 2026, the United Kingdom increased its duty-free autonomous tariff quota for raw cane sugar for refining from 260,000 tonnes to 325,000 tonnes.
The sugar beet acreage of the approximately 4,800 AGRANA contract farmers (previous year: about 5,700 farmers) in the 2025 crop year was about 66,000 hectares. This significant reduction from the prior crop year’s 99,000 hectares was due to the factory closures in Leopoldsdorf, Austria, and Hrušovany, Czech Republic. Growing conditions in 2025 were marked by favourable weather.
The incidence of Cercospora leaf disease was lower than in the previous years, resulting in satisfactory leaf health. The sugar content of the beet therefore rose steadily throughout the growing season and was significantly higher at harvest than one year earlier.
The incidence of beet weevil was largely brought under control (thanks to a seed treatment applied under an emergency authorisation) and only led to a moderate loss of acreage. In isolated cases, particularly in the eastern growing regions, diseases such as stolbur and rubbery taproot disease occurred, caused by various species of plant hoppers.
The growing conditions described were the key reason for an above-average sugar content of 16.6% (previous year: 14.9%). Approximately 4.3 million tonnes of sugar beet (previous year: 6.5 million tonnes) were harvested from a total area of about 63,000 hectares, corresponding to an average yield of 69 tonnes per hectare (previous year: 67 tonnes per hectare).
AGRANA’s five beet sugar factories processed a combined daily average of slightly more than 33,600 tonnes of beet during the campaign (previous year: 48,400 tonnes in seven factories). Thanks to the higher beet sugar content and beet quality, which partially made up for the lower beet quantity, the factories produced a total of about 646,000 tonnes of conventional sugar (previous year: 816,000 tonnes), over a campaign averaging 128 days in length (previous year: 136 days).
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 a raw cane sugar refinery in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in the 2025|26 financial year produced about 61,800 tonnes of white sugar (previous year: about 73,000 tonnes).
In the ACS – Sugar segment, AGRANA invested € 12.4 million (previous year: € 25.7 million) during the 2025|26 financial year, primarily for the following projects:
Investment in the ACS – Sugar segment represented 12.0% of the Group’s total capital expenditure.
Additionally in 2025|26, € 2.1 million (previous year: € 1.0 million) was invested in the equity-accounted joint ventures (the AGRANA-STUDEN group and Beta Pura GmbH; values for these entities are stated at 100% of the total).
