The agri-food giant Tereos considers that the closure of its potato starch processing plant in Haussimont (Marne) “should be considered” due to lack of buyer, AFP learned this Wednesday, which would be the group’s third plant affected by a plan social in a few months.
“In the absence of an identified buyer to date, a project to close the site at the end of the 2023/24 campaign should be considered,” the management explained in a circular sent Tuesday to its planting partners and consulted by AFP.
Despite “several expressions of interest”, the specialist in the transformation of agricultural raw materials (into sugar, alcohol, starch, etc.) “considers that the possibilities of materializing a project to sell the activity in the short or medium term are limited” . , according to this text signed in particular by the chairman of the board of directors, Gérard Clay.
The National Union of Potato Producers (UNPT) interpreted Tereos’ announcements in a press release on Wednesday as an acknowledgment “of the failure to take over the site.”
The second largest sugar group in the world
“It is a page in French agricultural history that is being turned and a blow to the national starch sector,” laments the specialized association of the majority union FNSEA, highlighting the link with climate change that is affecting “every again to the yields of spring crops such as potatoes”.
Tereos, the second largest sugar group in the world -behind the German Südzucker- had already announced at the beginning of March the closure of its sugar factory in Escaudoeuvres (North) and its distillery in Morains (Marne), as part of an “attack industrial reorganization”.
The news had led to a blockade of the Escaudoeuvres site by government employees, demonstrations and protests.
Initially, 26 posts in Morains and 123 in Escaudoeuvres were to be eliminated.
For these two sites, the CGT welcomed in a statement released this Wednesday the “progress achieved” after “more than 80 days of occupation” and mobilization, stating that “all employees of Escaudoeuvres and Morains will maintain a job in the group”. .
Tereos told AFP that before the end of August about 150 positions within the framework of internal mobility will be offered to interested employees and that “about forty” remained, partly temporarily, at the Escaudoeuvres site.
The cooperative group, owner of the Béghin Say and La Perruche brands, posted a “record” operating profit of 664 million euros last year, boosted by sugar prices.
Source: BFM TV
