German sugar maker Suedzucker to raise prices, shift to coal power

BERLIN: German sugar producer Suedzucker plans “significant” price hikes to offset rising costs and prepares to shift to coal as Russian gas supplies to Western Europe slow in the wake of the Ukraine war, the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper reported on Saturday.

“The costs of beet cultivation and energy are rising, and these are two significant blocks of production,” Chief Executive Niels Poerksen said in an interview with the newspaper.

“If there was no price increase, it would be difficult to come out of the business with any profit,” he said.

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The company is also ramping up stocks for use at the plants where coal can also be used as not all Suedzucker factories are equipped to run on other energy sources if there is no more gas, Poerksen told the newspaper.