HAMBURG (Reuters) – Germany’s second largest sugar producer Nordzucker on Thursday said it will start this year’s sugar refining season on Sept. 3 and reported success in converting refinery plants to oil fuel because of uncertainty about gas supplies.
Over 80% of its German sugar production capacity has been converted back to oil, a Nordzucker spokesman said.
Nordzucker had in previous years been actively switching sugar factories to gas power as part of its programme to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
But the current uncertainty about gas supplies after Russia cut gas deliveries to Western Europe has prompted a temporary change back to oil.
“Where possible and necessary, our colleagues have switched the factories from gas as an energy source to oil since the end of February in order to secure the processing of the sugar beet,” said Nordzucker chief operating officer Alexander Godow in a statement. “In this short period of time, this is a tremendous achievement.”
Nordzucker hopes to have sufficient gas available even at those locations where conversion was not possible.
In the longer term it hopes to develop bio-energy from beet pulp to achieve its carbon reduction targets.
Due to drought in substantial parts of Europe, Nordzucker expects the group’s harvest to be below last year’s level, the company said.
Along with Germany, Nordzucker also has refineries in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Australia.
“With slightly higher sugar contents than in previous years, Nordzucker expects the overall harvest to be slightly below the average of previous years,” it said.
“The sometimes extreme dryness leads to significant regional differences in beet yields. Current planning assumes that beet processing will be completed by the end of January 2023.”
(Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
