Plant closures and surplus imports: the structural sugar crisis in Europe and Italy

22 out of 103 plants on the Continent closed. In Italy, the last remaining cooperative announced the temporary suspension of the Veneto plant.

Coprob-Italia Zuccheri, Italy’s only national sugar producer – two plants that manage the entire beet supply chain, from processing to storage – announces the seasonal suspension of the Veneto beet processing plant. For 2026 in Pontelongo (Padua) – 200 workers, both permanent and seasonal, and 2,000 conferring farmers – only the packaging site will be maintained, but ‘the structural modernisation project will be completed with the 3 million euro Pnrr project’.