Nordzucker Post 01/2023 - 6 February 2023

Lars Gorissen: “Together into a new successful year”

Dear Readers

A successful company needs a good strategy and enthusiastic, flexible colleagues to put the concepts and programs into action together with all stakeholders. The 2022/23 campaign held unprecedented challenges for all of us, such as a potential energy shortage and extreme climatic conditions. I’m convinced everyone did their best to find good solutions, and for that I thank everyone involved very much. The experience we have gained will help us to do even better in the future.

Unfortunately – and due to heat and drought – the beet yield was lower in some regions than the average in recent years. This was not compensated for by higher sugar contents, so that the overall campaign result was below average. We partially compensated for the lack of sugar by refining imported cane sugar at our refineries in Finland and Poland. Important for our beet growers: The current high sugar prices are enabling very good prices for this harvest! Sugar beet thus remains an important crop in agriculture, whose cultivation and processing are essential for the food supply and pays off for our beet growers. In Australia, the sugar cane harvest produced very good yields. 

One example of how our teams met the challenges of the past year with a great deal of commitment, intelligent and pragmatic solutions is securing energy supplies in times of extreme geopolitical upheaval. I am proud of our teams who set up bivalent energy supplies with other energy sources at short notice for our plants in Europe, which are often operated with natural gas. In this way, all locations came through the campaign without any energy-related restrictions. 

Why do I mention this? Because I am convinced that we have a forward-looking strategy and in addition the people and partners who use their knowledge to create precisely tailored solutions to achieve the best possible results. Based on this, we have again set our targets high for 2023. With our strategy based on the three pillars of excellence, sustainability and growth, we are focusing on programs and projects that make Nordzucker more efficient, more successful and more sustainable.

With our GoGreen team, for example, we are continuing to work on becoming more energy-efficient and using new technologies to make our production CO2-neutral by 2050 at the latest. One component of this could be biogas from sugar beet processing residues. The basis for this would be the inclusion of beet pulp from the process as a renewable energy source in the Renewable Energies Directive at European level. This is what we are committed to.

With our Smart Beet Initiative, we support our growers with the latest findings and practicable solutions to the ever-new challenges – such as reducing the use of crop protection products. Together, we want to make regional beet cultivation even more sustainable, efficient and profitable. We will keep you informed about these and many other projects in the course of this year – or perhaps even work with you directly. 

For now, I hope you enjoy this issue of our Nordzucker Post.

With best regards,

Lars Gorissen