HAMBURG (Reuters) - The CEO of Suedzucker <SZUG.DE>, Europe's largest sugar refiner, said on Thursday that trading conditions remained intensely difficult with low sugar prices and no turnaround likely for the company's current financial year.
"Our group forecast for the current financial year still shows no visible turnaround," CEO Wolfgang Heer told the annual meeting of Suedzucker shareholders.
He added: "Sugar prices remain at a low level which does not cover costs."
He said in an advance release of his speech that the company's restructuring plan in its sugar sector, which includes closures of sugar factories in Germany, France and Poland, is on schedule. But the first financial benefits will be seen in the second half of the company's 2020/21 financial year.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan; Editing by Michelle Martin)
