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Updated at 7:44 a.m., Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Sugar production business not easy in Europe, either

By Thom Rose
Bloomberg News Service

Suedzucker AG, the world's biggest sugar processor, said it plans to close two plants in Germany as the European Union reduces sugar exports.

Suedzucker plans to close plants in Gross-Gerau and Regensburg, the Mannheim, Germany-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. The company will decide in May when to close the plants, and didn't say how many jobs are to be cut.

The 27-nation European Union, the world's second-biggest sugar exporter, is reducing shipments after Brazil won a World Trade Organization dispute in 2005 that stops growers from sending excess production abroad. Suedzucker, controlled by almost 30,000 German sugar-beet farmers, said yesterday that it had a full-year loss after sugar prices fell.