News
2019/20 sugarbeet campaign report : Tereos’ initiatives yield their first results
Tereos 2019/2020 sugar campaign –the third since the deregulation of the European sugar industry in October 2017–has just finished, ending on a positive note: at the agricultural level, with sugar beet yields and volumes on target; at the industrial level, with a record-breaking performance of Tereos sugar plants; and, at the commercial level, thanks to flexible assets that make it possible for Tereos to take advantage of current favourable conditions on the ethanolmarket.
Bolstered by its “Ambitions 2022” performance plan and reassured by its positive operating results and the recovery of sugar prices in Europe, Tereos is displaying positive dynamics that confirm the relevance of its long-term strategy.
The Group keeps transforming and working for a sustainable future for the French sugar beet industry in a deregulated environment, and for the future of its operations in the French territory.
Highlights from the 2019/2020 sugar beet campaign:
▪ Over 99.5% of the sugar beet volume commitments falling due during the 2019/20 campaign were renewed by Tereos cooperative partners, for an additional five-year period. This renewed commitment from farmers confirms the strength of Tereos long-term cooperative supply model, even in an environment disrupted by a sharp decline in European sugar prices over the past two years. Tereos contracting levels remain generally stable since the 20% increase achieved before the abolition of the quota system in 2017.
▪ Agricultural yields this year are within the five-year average, at 88 t/ha in France, one of the best agronomic performance in Europe. However, these results hide strong regional differences as well as the impact of heavy rainfall that impacted both the harvest of the sugar beets and their supply to the plants at the end of the season (over 100 rainy days during this year’s harvest season). For 2019/20, close to 18 million tons of sugar beets have been transformed by Tereos in France (over 21 million tons in Europe for Tereos).
▪ The first successful organic sugar beet harvest in France was completed at the Attin sugar factory this year, demonstrating the potential of this new certified sector in France. ▪ Actions taken by Tereos Sugar France to improve safety as part of its “Ambitions 2022” plan are yielding positive results this year, with accident rates continuing to decrease since 2017.
▪ At the industrial level, Tereos French sugar plants set a new operational record during this campaign, with close to 135,000 tons of sugar beet transformed in its 9 French sugar plants each day. This performance is the result of the investments made and of the performance plans deployed in recent years, and also of a very good level of reliability, during the 125 days of the campaign.
▪ Tereos benefitted over the past months from the flexibility of its production assets, allowing it to take advantage of the favourable ethanol market. Tereos keeps working on its industrial transformation, with the launch of a “factory 4.0” program. The Connantre site (51) will be the pilot factory for Europe. Furthermore, Tereos is progressing on its energy transition, with notable results and a 4.5% reduction of its factories’ energy consumption, and keeps experimenting new innovative solutions, such as the LogiSmart tool for real-time optimisation of sugar beet transportation to factories.
