Südzucker partners with Mauritius
On June 2, 2008, Südzucker and the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate, the marketing arm of the sugar industry in Mauritius, signed a long term partnership agreement, starting in 2009 and ending in 2015, for the annual supply of some 400,000 tonnes of cane sugar into the EU market. This partnership rests on the strength of the preferential trade agreement between Mauritius, an ACP state, and the EU which has provided the latter, since 1975, a duty-free import quota of over 500,000 tons sugar per annum under the Sugar Protocol into the EU market. In 2009, the ACP/EU trade arrangements will be replaced by the new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which will maintain the preferential access into the EU market for all the sugar produced in Mauritius.
After a thorough market investigation, the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate (MSS) has taken the decision to establish a commercial partnership with Südzucker, Europe's largest sugar company, on the basis of its market strength and its outstanding infrastructure. Südzucker meets the future requirements of the MSS, which will consequently be able to manage its European market activities from the island of Mauritius without the need of building up its own sales and marketing organization in Europe. Mauritius produces about 500,000 tonnes of sugar annually and is the leading sugar producing ACP country. The MSS will thus market about 80% of its production under the terms of its commercial partnership with Südzucker.
As a result of this partnership, Südzucker has succeeded in offsetting about half of the 870,000 tonnes of sugar quota it surrendered under the terms of the EU sugar market regulations, thereby firmly strengthening its EU market leadership position. All the more it will be able to increase its competitive edge in the new deficit markets in EU through shipment of containerised cargoes directly from Mauritius. The partnership between Mauritius and Südzucker is a long-term strategic alliance,the present termination date of 2015 having been chosen only on the basis of the expiry date of the current EU market regulation term.