More stable markets, cost-cutting and greater volume sales sent nine-month profits surging from €0.4m ($0.42m) to €81.7m ($87m) at Europe’s second biggest sugar producer. Germany’s Nordzucker group reported revenues of €1.3bn ($1.4m), up nine percent on the year, in the nine months to 30 November 2016.

Nordzucker said the reason its profits had rocketed to €81.7m ($87m) from €0.4m ($0.42m) was due to a handful of factors: greater sales volumes; more stable market prices for quota and non-quota sugar; and “extensive” cost cutting.

Nordzucker said it expects to report a “good net profit” for the year ahead of the erasing of EU sugar quotas next year, meaning future forecasts for next year and beyond are difficult to give.

CEO of Nordzucker Hartwig Fuchs said: “Our endeavours to eliminate costs throughout the value chain while boosting our competitiveness are paying off.” 

He added: “1 October 2017 will be a turning point for us. We will achieve success in a world without quotas too.”

Nordzucker processed around 15m tons of beet during the 2016/2017 campaign, now drawing to a close.

Sugar yields were above the long-term average in most of the countries in which the group operates, with record results being achieved in a number of regions. The 13 plants were operating for an average of 104 days, a figure that was higher than in the previous year.

Commenting on the removal of EU sugar quotas from October next year, Fuchs added: “We do not believe that overproduction in the EU is the right way to go, because we want to continue to achieve predictable planning together with our farmers in the future and therefore also adequate beet prices.”

Nordzucker operates in a number of markets including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Lithuania. 

One of its best performing markets over the year has been Germany, with 13.5m tons of sugar made per hectare, up from 13m tons the year before.

Nordzucker said it is on target to make savings of at least €50m ($53m) over the year but income from animal feed and its bioethanol business was below expectations.