The beet campaign is going well, Cosun wrote last week, but expectations for the beet price are tempered. In a letter to member growers, the cooperative speaks of a 'significantly lower beet price' for the 2024 growing year.
The demand for sugar is disappointing while production has increased. The current supply of sugar and the current stocks in Europe are putting pressure on the sugar market. After a few years of rising sugar prices, there is now a clear turnaround on the European sugar market, Cosun notes. Sales prices have fallen by hundreds of euros per ton in recent months.
Cosun adjusted the system for calculating the beet price two years ago, which means that the beet price is partly dependent on the sugar sales that still have to take place later in the season. The beet price for this campaign year is partly dependent on the sugar sales in the last quarter of 2024 and the first three quarters of 2025. "Not all the sugar for this period has been sold yet. That is why we cannot make any statement about the level of the beet price at this time. It is clear that it will be considerably lower than the beet price paid last year," Cosun writes to its member growers.
Cosun still struggling with the end of market regulation
For the 2025 cultivation year, Cosun has lowered the allocation percentage to 100% and Cosun is not the only sugar factory that has announced a reduction in area. The reduction in the European area will help to stabilize the European sugar market in the long term and possibly cause the price of sugar to rise again, according to the cooperative. In addition, Cosun points out that the results of non-sugar activities contribute to Cosun's result and therefore to the beet price. "This helps us to partly absorb the high volatility of the sugar price. Nevertheless, the volatility of the European sugar price, which arose due to the abolition of the market regulation in 2017, still has a major impact on the results."