The market for 2026/27 European sugar has settled into a standoff. Buyers are holding around the €530 mark depending on volume, while sellers are trying to keep the line near €600 basis bulk ex works the beet belt. Little is trading, and neither side looks ready to blink.
The supply backdrop is doing sellers few favours. After a hot, dry spell, wetter weather has returned across much of the beet belt, with Poland the main exception. Nordzucker expects this year’s EU crop to come in about 2% above normal, echoing the JRC Mars assessment. Good growing weather also favours cercospora, and ITB in France notes foliage developing more slowly this year, with 34% of plants carrying fewer than 10 leaves by late May, against 13% a year earlier. In the UK, an emergency derogation has cleared a further aphid spray.
The bigger story sits with the processors. Tereos, Nordzucker and Südzucker’s sugar division all reported sharply weaker annual results. Nordzucker’s chief executive said the company wants to lift cane exposure toward half of revenue through acquisitions in South America, even as it warns of another loss-making year. In Germany, Pfeifer & Langen has told farmers it will not renew contracts on 1,200 hectares of beet for 2027.
Next year could prove harder still. Wheat crops are down in North America, Russia and Australia, and higher fertiliser costs could push wheat prices up, pulling growers away from beet unless processors pay more.
For buyers, the read-through is whether a comfortable crop or a strained industry sets the tone for new-crop pricing.
