“It hurts our souls,” said company boss Markus Mühleisen of the “Kleine Zeitung”, but it was necessary in the interests of security of supply in order to prepare for a gas supply failure. Currently, the gas requirement for sugar and starch production is particularly high. That will have an impact on the sugar beet campaign and the potato harvest in the fall. Despite the war, Mühleisen currently wants to hold on to the site in Russia, where fruit preparations are manufactured. “We struggle every day with the question of how to behave properly here,” he said. But even if Agrana “strongly condemns” the attack on Ukraine and supports the sanctions against Russia, “we have an obligation to ordinary people, the Russian population. We are part of the food chain, we produce staple foods together with our customers. And so far we believe staying is the right thing to do to provide the population with these staples”.
Production in the Ukraine with 600 employees is very difficult. Agrana has three locations in the country, two plants for fruit juice and fruit preparation and a farm. However, production continues in three-shift operation.
Even if Agrana is trying to absorb cost increases by improving efficiency, “it is also a certain reality that we cannot swallow everything and have to pass on costs”. In general, Mühleisen expects prices to continue to rise, including for sugar. Although the per capita consumption of sugar will generally decline in Austria, Agrana is reckoning with growth opportunities with the Wiener Zucker brand.
Mühleisen defends the production of ethanol for blending into fuel. Because the plant would first produce starch from wheat, as well as high-quality proteins. “What’s left over is processed into ethanol. Ethanol is basically a by-product here.”
Source: Nachrichten
