France takes blow after blow when it comes to sugar processing in the country. Where Sudzucker announced in March to close 2 factories, Cristal Union announced this week that it was closing 2 locations due to the global sugar surplus.
Cristal Union, the second largest sugar producer in France, has fallen into the red and has been forced to close the sites in Bourdon (1 tons of sugar per year) and Toury (40.000 tons of sugar per year). Cristal Union says it sees little hope in the sugar market† there is simply too much supply of sugar cane and beet sugar for global demand and that is not going to change for the foreseeable future.
Closing in 2020
The closure of both factories is planned for 2020, after the beet season and processing of 2019. 500 beet growers and 300 employees have been informed by letter. According to the group, these measures are necessary, because after the end of the beet quota in 2017, an oversupply pressure is firmly on the world market.
Combined with the lower beet harvest and historically low sugar prices (down 20,6% in 2018), this company suffered a loss of €99 million last year. In addition to the closures, the activities at the packaging location in Erstein are also being scaled back.
tereos
After this, only 1 sugar manufacturer in France remains: Tereos. This processor informs Reuters that it has no plans to close locations.
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