ABF Sugar: Low EU and UK sugar prices with high beet costs contribute to operating loss in 2024/25

ABF
  -  
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
In Sugar, persistent low European sugar prices and an operating loss in our UK bioethanol business, Vivergo, are impacting overall profitability in 2025. Challenges in Tanzania, due to the overhang of high levels of sugar imports in 2024, and in South Africa, due to drought, are also impacting performance. As a result, we now expect Sugar to have an adjusted operating loss of up to £40m in this financial year. In our Spanish business, Azucarera, the deterioration in market conditions has demonstrated that the cost base is structurally too high. As a result, we are close to completing an operational review, which is assessing a number of scenarios to restructure this business. In Vivergo, the way in which regulations are being applied to bioethanol is undermining the commercial viability of our business. We are having constructive discussions with the UK Government to explore regulatory options to improve the position. There is no guarantee that these discussions will be successful, and we will either mothball or close the Vivergo plant if necessary. The actions we are taking in Azucarera and Vivergo increase our confidence that Sugar profitability can recover over the medium term. The timeframe for recovery in the Sugar segment is longer than we had originally expected due a slower-paced rebalancing of supply and demand in European sugar markets and a delay in the recovery of profitability in Tanzania.
Click here to connect to the source of this storyClick here for more News and Views

As I browse the web researching various topics concerning the EU and UK sugar markets, I've been bookmarking interesting weblinks. Some of these are news clippings, some are links to official documents, and some are interesting data sources.

It's really easy (and anonymous) to subscrible to this EU and UK News & Views feed with RSS. Add this address to your favourite RSS reader:
https://www.julianprice.com/news-clippings/rss.xml