PARIS, Aug 26 (Reuters) – French sugar maker Tereos expects this summer’s extreme heat and drought to reduce its growers’ sugar beet yields by more than 20% compared with last year, contributing to an anticipated 38-year low for EU sugar output, the company said on Wednesday.
• Sugar beet is among summer crops, such as maize and potatoes, to have suffered badly from extreme weather in Europe.
• Tereos said beet yields for its French growers were also expected to be about 15% below the average of the past five seasons.
• In response to the weather-hit crop, Tereos plans to shorten its sugar production campaign at its eight French factories to 100 days on average compared with 130 days last year, it said in a statement.
• Tereos will also delay the start of the campaign to allow beet crops to potentially gain some yield.
• Tereos said sugar prices were recovering after two years of decline, which had led to lower profits for the company and European rivals.
• The expected tightening of supply and a decline in planting should help the market rebalance.
• “Today, we are seeing the first signs of a rise in sales prices, which should enable the sector to return to a more balanced level of performance,” Pierre-Henri Dietz, Tereos’ commercial director, said in the statement.
• In a joint statement on Tuesday, Tereos and other French producers warned that sugar beet production could be more than 20% below average, with the impact of heat and drought exacerbated by pest and disease pressure.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
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