The Moldovan-German joint venture Südzucker Moldova SA is the leader of sugar beet cultivation sector in Moldova. The company owns currently 3 sugar factories. 2 sugar factories in Drochia and Falesti are involved in sugar production, while the sugar factory in Alexandreni avails of a modern logistics and packaging centre. In 2008 the company produced 80 thousand tons of sugar, which is 62% of total sugar production in Moldova.
The main shareholder of the company is the European concern Südzucker AG, the largest sugar producer in the world. This concern owns sugar factories in Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.
Over the past five years, the volume of investments allocated for the modernization of two sugar factories was 20 million Euro. As a result, electricity costs were reduced about twice. The quality of sugar improved considerably. In 2008 JV Südzucker Moldova SA has been certified under the ISO 9001:2000 and НАССР international standards.
The company exported sugar to several countries of the European Union and the Russian Federation.
Südzucker Moldova pays special attention to the development of raw materials. The company established agro-technical centres at the Drochia, Falesti and Alexandreni factories. The agro-technical fleet performs all types of works on sugar beet fields of adjacent farms for subsidized rates. While providing comprehensive advisory and financial support to farmers, the German experts of the company introduced the European culture of sugar beet growing in Moldova. The average harvest of sugar beet increased from 17.9 t/hа in 2003 to 42.0 t/hа in 2008. Average profitability of sugar beet cultivation in 2008 reached 40%.
In 2009, Südzucker Moldova has contracted about 16 thousand hectares of sugar beet (with a total area of about 22 thousand hectares) in the areas of raw material cultivation owned by its factories. The company provided around 100 million MDL of technical credits for the production of this crop, based on a harvest mortgage contract.
Early in 2008, the company Südzucker Moldova founded its subsidiary agricultural enterprise with a comprehensive profile Agro-SZM. The new company's management team comprises such professionals as managers, agronomists, engineers and mechanics. In order to equip the Agro-SZM company with machinery, five sugar beet harvesting combines and four grain harvesting combines, eight U.S. manufactured high capacity tractors and other 36 tractors, universal seeding-machines, disc harrows, cultivators were brought from Germany. The Agro-SZM tractor fleet is located in two facilities of the company, in Drochia and Falesti rayons.
The agricultural enterprise rented 7.6 thousand hectares of arable land, most of which has not been processed for many years, in the rayons of Drochia, Falesti, Floresti and Sangerei, which are considered source-areas of raw material of the Südzucker Moldova sugar factories. For the next season, the management of Südzucker Agro plans to expand its rented land area, for the next three years the company plans to rent up to 12 thousand hectares of arable land. As the land area will increase, the material and technical resources of the company will be increased accordingly.
Südzucker Moldova cooperates actively with the government authorities on improving the legal framework designed for a proper operation of the sugar beet industry in Moldova, which is favourable for the European Union sugar market.
