Sustainability

The Südzucker Group processes around 20 million tonnes of beet each year, produced on 400,000 hectares. Saint Louis Sucre promotes the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices for its growers, of which more than 80% of the beets are certified RedCert Gold level. The RedCert standard is recognised by the SAI (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative) platform. This organisation, founded by major players in the food industry and of which the Südzucker group is a member, enables food companies using sugar to ensure that it is made from sustainably produced beet. Saint Louis Sucre deploys a vast system of support for its growers and training for its internal teams in this certification, which is audited annually. Saint Louis Sucre growers are certified Redcert Gold level.

The search for sustainable alternatives to the use of certain phytosanitary products is at the heart of the efforts of Saint Louis Sucre and the sugar beet sector.

The Mont Blanc programme deployed at Saint Louis Sucre and within the Südzucker group aims to support growers in their agroecological transition while ensuring the economic sustainability of their farms. Based on a pragmatic approach, Mont Blanc relies on the sharing of experience among growers, through a monitoring network, pilot farms and dedicated meeting days.

The safety of its employees is a priority for Saint Louis Sucre, which has been implementing awareness-raising and prevention actions on this subject for many years. The objective of Saint Louis Sucre and the Südzucker group is “zero accident”. Each establishment carries out actions in the field to get closer to this objective: risk analyses, prevention plans, communication, training and audits.

An executive safety committee meets every quarter to give impetus to the safety policy and to examine its results. In the workplace, visuals inform staff of the presence of residual risks at the places of use, and instructions for safe work at workstations specify in particular the collective and individual protection to be used. Before any non-recurring activity that may present one or more particular risks not covered by a safe work instruction, an appropriate and formalised risk analysis is carried out. In addition to this system, safety audits are carried out regularly at all sites, including the observation of behaviour at the workstation.

Every year, training sessions on safety and the management system in place are held for new arrivals and for existing staff in the form of refresher courses or reminders.

This commitment is bearing fruit, as the accident frequency rate at Saint Louis Sucre is regularly one of the lowest in the sugar industry and in the Südzucker group.

The Südzucker Group’s local roots are reflected in its strong economic impact. 29,400 beet growers supply the Group’s sugar factories. The activity of the Südzucker Group’s sugar factories creates a total of 60,000 jobs in Europe, directly, indirectly and induced by the activity. The total added value generated by the Südzucker Group in Europe amounts to 3 billion euros.