According to David Serjan, Tereos’s director of agriculture, this year’s harvest will be lower than last year’s due to a lack of moisture, repeated heat waves, and the deteriorating condition of the sugar beet crops. The cooperative forecasts that the 2026 sugar beet harvest will be more than 20% lower than in 2025. In some European regions, the drop in yields is as high as 50–60%, according to Latifundist.
Compared to the average over the past five seasons, this year’s harvest is expected to be 15% lower. Due to the raw material shortage, Tereos is adjusting the operating schedules of its sugar factories to process the available beet volumes as efficiently as possible.
The decline in production is already affecting the market. After two years of significant production declines, Tereos management is observing a marked increase in sugar prices. The company expects that a reduction in commercial inventories, combined with rising global prices, will contribute to the recovery of the European sugar market.
The situation is further complicated by the reduction in sugar beet acreage in France and other European countries over the past three years. Producers also have a limited set of tools available to adapt to climate change.
