Südzucker International Finance B. V. Südzucker AG ... - Xetra

Sales volumes for the six Polish factories rose to128,000 tonnes (118,000 tonnes) of sugar. The Polishsugar market is suffering from considerableover-capacity. Formation of a state Polish sugarcompany did not lead to market stabilisation, as theliquidity of many factories determines sales policy.Our market position in Moldova could further beextended. Cancellation of the trade agreementbetween Moldova and the Ukraine led to a halt forexports to the Ukraine.Reliable agricultureOperations of the Südzucker agriculture divisionagain delivered positive results due to the excellentsugar beet yield and quality in 2002/03.Agricultural research carried out in many areasled to new knowledge, underscoring the reliableperformance by agriculture. The main areas ofresearch continued to be soil processing and aselective area of cultivation approach to farming.The findings enable various regions of Europe toimplement optimal soil processing and an idealsupply of nutrients to sugar beet, resulting in highyields per hectare and good quality. Use of thisknow-how at farms in Moldova and Poland as wellas in other eastern European countries has beenparticularly satisfactory.Südzucker thus makes a significant contribution toa sustained agricultural sector, particularly in thesecountries, as it can be demonstrated that ecologicalconsiderations can indeed be satisfied alongside vitalfinancial objectives in agriculture, and can sometimeseven increase yields.FeedstuffsPellets and molasses, sugar processing by-products,could be marketed in line with budget at all groupcompanies. In Germany, sales volumes of molassesshavings and molasses shaving pellets fell slightlydue to lower quantities available, but morefinancially viable freight distances led to improvedyields. Molasses sales volumes continue to shifttowards the yeast industry, whose needs are met byhigh quality molasses. Raffinerie Tirlemontoise andSaint Louis Sucre have also fully achieved theirobjectives for sales of molasses. AGRANA can showgrowth in sales volumes of sugar by-products as well.Sales volumes of pellets and molasses were in linewith budget. The main customers for molasses fromeastern Europe were the yeast and alcohol industriesin Poland, Moldova, Romania, the Czech Republic,Slovakia and Hungary.Bodengesundheitsdienst with a new range of testsBGD Bodengesundheitsdienst GmbH, Mannheim, is awholly-owned Südzucker subsidiary and carries outservices for agriculture. Its services include soilexamination and fertilisation advice for all majorplant foodstuffs, examination of humus andanalyses of organic fertiliser. Furthermore, as part ofstatutory requirements, nutrient comparisons arecarried out as part of the fertilisation ordinance, andpotatoes are tested as required by the official potatoordinance.The main source of revenues is fertilisation advisoryservices. These are carried out using the EUF soilexamination method, which identifies all the majorplant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate, potash, lime,calcium, magnesium, boron and sulphur) from a soilsample and hence determines crop- and site-relatedfertilisation recommendations.A study for threadworm based on a DNA test is anew service. This threadworm test was developedin co-operation with the Biological Federal Office,the State Office for Agriculture in Freising and BeetF-65