Thank you, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are all welcoming you, and we thank you for participation in today's conference call of Südzucker AG. As mentioned in the invitation, the underlying presentation has been published this afternoon on our homepage. Mr. Pörksen and Mr. Kölbl will make reference to the respective pages of this presentation. Today, we release a report for the financial year ending 28th of February, 2022. We're going to explain the highlights of the year and give details about the guidance for the current financial year, 2022, 2023. We're happy to take your questions following the presentation of our CEO and CFO. A recording of this call will be available on our homepage for those who are not able to participate. Now, I would like to hand over to Mr. Pörksen. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Nikolai, and good day. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the entire executive team, I'm pleased to welcome you to this year's Analyst and Investors Conference. For reasons of health protection, we have once again decided to hold it virtually. Let's start by taking a brief look back at the past fiscal year on page three. It was an interesting and an exciting, but unfortunately also another pandemic year. Just before it ended, just as the Corona situation was beginning to ease, the attack on Ukraine dashed any hope of the situation returning to normal. The ongoing Ukraine war presents us with challenges and will also have an impact on the rest of the current fiscal year. I will come back to that a little later and more in detail.
Over the past 12 months, we have further developed the Group Strategy 2026 PLUS, which we first presented to you at last year's conference and started implementing it. It will give you a detailed update on the progress made later. At this point, I would like to emphasize in particular that we, as a management board, are very proud of what we all achieved together, especially through the high level of commitment shown by our employees during the Corona pandemic in specific. At every stage of this pandemic, we were able to fulfill our obligations as a producer of food and supply our customers and therefore consumers with our products. We are aware that there have been and continue to be high level of stress individually as a result of Corona. Our employees have managed their professional and private challenges extraordinarily well.
We would therefore like to take this opportunity, as we did last year, to express our sincere thanks to everyone's commitment in this difficult situation. In the meantime, the effects of this pandemic are increasingly losing their impact both on our lives and on the group's operating business. Nevertheless, the Fruit headwinds are still being felt. Now on page five to the topic that has kept us all on tenterhooks since February 2022, the war in Ukraine. The attack on Ukraine has brought the war back to Europe. On behalf of the entire executive board team, I would like to clearly emphasize here that Südzucker expressly condemns this belligerent aggression. As the company, Südzucker stands for sovereignty, diversity, respect, and human rights, and is committed to the United Nations Charter.
Within the scope of possibilities, we also assume responsibility and contribute with numerous measures to improving the humanitarian situation on the ground and in many European countries where Ukrainian refugees are seeking protection and refuge. Südzucker's group overall direct exposure is low. The Ukraine war, with all its direct and indirect effects, represent a new and very serious challenge. Firstly, directly because AGRANA, specifically in the food segment, operates locations in both Ukraine and Russia, and secondly, indirectly through the drastic impact, for example, energy and raw material prices and their availability. For us, one of the most urgent tasks at the moment is to monitor the situation very closely, to be prepared for the various scenarios, to protect our employees, and to navigate the company through this crisis. Let me make it clear at this point that this year's forecast had to be determined under considerable uncertainty.
We have based our forecast on the assumptions that the war will remain temporary and regionally limited, that energy and raw material supplies will be secured, and that it will be possible to pass on the increased cost in new customers contracts. Mr. Kölbl will later explain the group forecast and the figures for the fiscal year 2021/ 2022 in detail. In addition, he will also show our medium-term goals with an ambition level to achieve an EBITDA of more than EUR 1 billion. Let us therefore take just a brief look at the figures of fiscal year 2021/ 2022 on page seven. At the group level, we posted a significant increased revenue to EUR 7.6 billion.
While revenues in the Special Products Segment were slightly higher than last year, they rose moderately in the Fruit Segment and significantly in the Sugar, CropEnergies, and Starch segments. I would particularly like to point out that we were able to continue the turnaround in the Sugar Segment and achieve an improvement in earnings of more than EUR 100 million. As a result of this, but also due to the improvements in the CropEnergies and Starch segments, consolidated operating profits rose significantly to EUR 332 million. As already mentioned, Mr. Kölbl will go into the financial details later on. Let's move to the overview of the individual segments. I would like to start on page 10 with the Sugar Segment. In 2019, we adopted a restructuring plan with the aim to focus on the European sugar market.
This made it necessary to adjust our factory and administrative structures. On the one hand, this enabled us to reduce the structural surplus in the EU sugar market. On the other hand, our measures were aimed to reducing our costs. We have now successfully implemented this restructuring plan. On its basis, we have also added further measures that are now being implemented, expanded on an ongoing basis. The measures mentioned on our Group Strategy 2026 PLUS build on each other. A logical next step in the realignment was therefore also the organizational adjustment of the sugar division, which we carried out in fiscal year 2021/ 2022. This has made us more agile and faster, which is a major advantage in what continues to be a very volatile sugar market.
Even at the beginning of the corona pandemic, the sugar market environment in the global market and in the EU was positive. However, the lockdown measures, some of which were very extensive, temporarily undermined this development. As a result, the expected price increase have been delayed. They have now only gradually materialized from summer 2021, with an acceleration of this upward trend being observed recently. Combined with a good harvest in fall 2021, we were already able to benefit from this to some extent in the past fiscal year. This trend should continue in 2022, 2023, and contribute to the expected further improvement in earnings. Let's also take a look at the development of our specialty segment. I would like to start on page 12 with the BENEO division. BENEO primarily produces functional ingredients.
Has a global presence and is therefore also a distribution partner for other Südzucker Group Companies. This creates an excellent starting position for further synergies within the group. The trend towards healthy nutrition continued 2021/ 2022. BENEO serves it, for example, with chicory-based dietary fiber, texturizing rice ingredients, and vegetable proteins. These ingredients, which are derived from natural raw materials, are used in a wide variety of foods such as dairy products, cereal, baked goods, and even baby food and spreads. The trend towards plant-based nutrition is providing additional impetus for BENEO. More and more consumers want to eat a flexitarian, vegetarian or even vegan diet. Another significant growth area is enrichment of pet food with functional ingredients. To follow this trend, we have made capacity expansion at almost all our sites. I will discuss investments in the segment in the strategy update.
On page 13, I would now like to present the business development in the Freiberger division. During the lockdown phases at the beginning of the corona pandemic, demand for convenience products, such as frozen pizza, was above average, which subsequently also had a very positive effect on fiscal year 2020 to 2021. In the past fiscal year, 2021/ 2022, this effect also weakened with the corona pandemic, which is why declines in sales volumes were to be expected. However, these temporary distortions do not change the fundamentally continuing growth trend in this market. Freiberger has therefore invested in further capacity expansion as planned. In addition, Freiberger improved the product mix, particularly in the specialties area, and pressed ahead with the establishment of new types of distribution partnerships begun in 2021 and 2022, and expanded regionally to France and the U.K.
Let us now turn to page 14, to the smallest unit within the Special Products Segment, PortionPack Europe. PortionPack is focused on the so-called HORECA sector, which includes hotels, restaurants, and catering. Because the sector was hit hardest by the corona pandemic, PortionPack continued to operate in a difficult environment in the past financial year. Although PortionPack was able to record a significant increase in sales compared to the first corona year, it was not yet possible to completely close the gap to the pre-corona period. Since the start of the corona pandemic, PortionPack has therefore placed increased emphasis on cost management. In addition, the portfolio expansion and the development of new customer group were accelerated. Both measures were continued in fiscal year 2021/ 2022. This also includes the re-bundling of production capacities at the Telford site in the U.K.
Let's move on to page 16 and the CropEnergies Segment. As the leading European producer of renewable ethanol for the fuel sector, CropEnergies makes a significant contribution to greenhouse gas savings and to road transport. Our subsidiary's product portfolio also includes the production of neutral alcohol, protein food, and animal feed products, and liquid CO2. Since the beginning of the pandemic, CropEnergies has also used its neutral alcohol production for the disinfection market, thus making an important contribution to health protection. In society's perception, first the corona pandemic, and now additionally the Ukraine war, have overshadowed many other issues. Nevertheless, the fight to limit global warming also remains an urgent social goal. Here, the use of ethanol in the transport sector is already making an important contribution to more climate-friendly mobility, while at the same time providing high-quality food and animal feed.
The specific development of CropEnergies has been, and continues to be, strongly influenced by mobility behavior. Within the last 12 months, a normalization can be observed. Despite the significant increase in cost, CropEnergies has succeeded in improving on the already excellent results of the previous year in achieving a new record level. In addition, CropEnergies is looking into the construction of a plant to produce renewable ethyl acetate, a basic material for the chemical industry. This will not only significantly further diversify the CropEnergies portfolio, but also contribute to the achievement of our goal within the Group Strategy 2026 PLUS. We continue with the Starch Segment on page 18. The starches, saccharification products, ethanol bioproducts, products that produced from various raw materials are used for various technical applications in both the food and animal sectors.
The corona pandemic also had an impact on the demand situation for starch products in the past fiscal year. Overall, sales volumes developed positively, although trends in the sub-sectors were heterogeneous. Demand for corn starch, saccharification products, animal feed in the specialty and organic sectors was encouraging. Sales volumes of native and modified starches in the food sector were stable. We conclude the segment overview with a look at the food segment on page 20. Ukraine will directly affect the food segment the most, as AGRANA has production facilities in both Ukraine and Russia. The outbreak of war shortly before the end of the financial year led to a mandatory impairment test as part of the 2021/ 2022 financial statements. The necessary adjustments were made. In addition, the ongoing operating business is also affected.
The charges are included in our forecast for fiscal year 2022, 2023. Let's now turn to the political framework conditions that are important for our business model on page 2022. This starts with the availability of the agricultural raw materials we process. The basic prerequisite for this is a well-functioning and competitive agriculture sector close to our sites. In the context, the EU's Green Deal will set an important course in the coming years. For example, with regards to plans to reduce the use of crop protection products and fertilizers. In principle, we welcome measures for even greater sustainability in agriculture. However, it is important that the adjustments are practical and can be implemented. Another issue is the extensification of agriculture that has been decided on, which entails the elimination of considerable areas for the cultivation of crops.
Against the backdrop of current developments due to the Ukraine war, a reassessment is necessary here, at least temporarily. In addition to agriculture policy, we are also closely following developments in the food policy. Here, the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA, published its scientific opinion on the maximum permitted intake of sugar in February this year. The core statement is that based on the current data situation, it is not possible to set a scientifically sound maximum level. Nevertheless, the authority advocates ingesting as little sugar as possible. In our view, it is not expedient for an authority to issue recommendations without the necessary scientific basis. Also under discussion at European level are the introduction of nutrient profiles and the setting of maximum limits for individual ingredients in foods.
We are very critical of both of these. In our view, it is also neither the right approach to introduce excise taxes for individual foods, nor to have the state control how much taste and enjoyment food may contain. Such taxes, as experience in various countries has shown, ultimately do not lead to the desired goal of weight reduction in the population. We continue to educate that nutritional policy measures should really only be taken on the basis of a high level of scientific certainty. This also applies to the new version of the strategy for reducing fat, salt, and sugar in convenience food, which is expected to be published by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture at the end of 2022. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to give you an update on the Group Strategy 2026 PLUS, starting on page 24 and the following pages.
Since its presentation in May 2021, we have continued to work systematically on this. Today, I will concentrate on four key areas on which we are currently focusing our attention. These four lighthouses are part of a whole series of focus initiatives that we identified as strategic topics in the past fiscal year. My presentation will focus in particular on how we have mapped out the relevant playing field for us and how, against this background, the concrete implementation of our plans is taking place. I also highlight the project we have already decided on to achieve our goal of further development Südzucker Group from a large-scale processor of agricultural raw materials into a leading partner of plant-based solutions for livable, healthy, and sustainable world. Let's start on page 25, with the main topic of proteins.
It is our goal to shape Südzucker into a fully integrated company for plant-based foods along the entire value chain. For example, from raw materials to research, production, marketing, and distribution to the consumer. This integration can be achieved through investments, organic growth, or strategic partnerships. We have derived our concrete approach for the main topics of proteins along this claim. We focus primarily on the market segment of plant-based meat and fish substitutes. In terms of raw materials, our focus is on legumes such as field beans or peas. For their cultivation, we are able to involve our existing farmer network and are thus able to fulfill our claim of sustainable and regionality. We see our main target markets for our protein products in Europe and in the future, also in North America. On page 26, I would like to illustrate what is already being implemented.
Südzucker has a protein business through its BENEO subsidiary, which provides us with know-how and the basis for further developing this business area. This existing business must be expanded through new product developments and further developed regionality. In addition, we will make greater use of the opportunities for corporations already mentioned. We expect to gain further impetus for possible investments by joining the EIT Food Accelerator program for the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, which gives us insight into the axis of innovative founders and startups. We can already present you with the first concrete measures. We invested in the construction of a production plant of protein concentrate from field bean for the food and feed industry in Offstein and start regional cultivation of field beans as raw material. We also acquired the Dutch company Meatless.
Meatless already successfully and profitably produces texturates from vegetable flours for use as fish and meat substitutes. Further details can be found in the press release on the transaction, which was also published today. Overall, we expect that our total investment of just under EUR 100 million on the potential available in Südzucker Group will significantly increase the sales of our entire protein business in the medium term. Further details can be found in the press release on the transaction, which was also published today. Let us now turn to page 27, where we focus on bio-based chemicals. Here, too, we are well on track with promising projects. We already have extensive expertise within the carbohydrates platform in sucrose, starches, ethanol, and CO2. This gives us an excellent starting point to further develop existing technologies, to develop and use new technologies ourselves or to acquire them.
Bio-based chemicals are obtained from renewable raw materials. For the production, we use the carbon that is bound in CO2 in plants or is generated in our production processes, for example, in the ethanol production. At the same time, we thus ensure further and longer-term sequestration of the greenhouse gas CO2. One of the chemical industry's parts to sustainability is to sustainability is that of defossilization, which has already been initiated in transport and energy generation. We therefore see a growing potential in this technology as well. Page 28 shows our part in this business segment. As a processor of renewable raw materials such as beets, chicory, rice, corn, potatoes, and wheat, Südzucker sits at the raw material source and has a wide selection of renewable carbon sources. Due to existing facilities and technical expertise, Südzucker has an outstanding starting place.
As in the protein area, we can already present a first forward-looking project here. CropEnergies is evaluating investing in the construction of a production plant to manufacture renewable ethyl acetate for the chemical industry on the basis of ethanol. Renewable, for example, green hydrogen is produced as a by-product. The potential investment volume will amount to approximately EUR 80 milllion- EUR 100 million over the next few years. On page 29, we now come to the update on digitalization and our digitalization strategy. A year ago, we established the topic of digitalization and IT directly in the executive board with its own department because we see digitalization as a decisive competitive differentiator. An important element here is to broaden knowledge about the opportunities and requirements of digital business at Südzucker.
In addition to teaching digital skills, it is also about using information technology as an opportunity for growth and a driving force for transformation. In partnership with our division and functions, this means supporting business models digitally. In terms of implementation, however, we are focusing first and foremost on building the technological foundation. Here we are increasingly relying on agile methods and building our capabilities in the areas of data and processing and artificial intelligence. The strategic framework of our work in the areas of digitalization and IT is based on three pillars. Our first focus area is modernization and building the foundation. We see opportunities here in the use of group-wide solutions and would like to fully exploit cross-divisional synergies.
One CRM project marked the beginning of this and laid the foundation for digitizing our sales and marketing processes on a uniform technological base. The platform has been available to Südzucker Group since the beginning of the year. Sales activities can be evaluated across divisions and cross-selling potential can be optimally supported. Another core aspect where we are striving for a group-wide solution is protection against cyberattacks. This topic is becoming increasingly explosive, which is why we are also pooling our expertise in this area and have already increased the number of staff in the cyber team. In addition, we are investing in the digitization of our plants. Our Internet of Things initiative pursues the concept of the networked factory based on the overarching IT infrastructure. Important information from production steps is collected and production processes optimized.
Creating added value through innovation is our second focus area. Our beet2go mobile app, which we developed some time ago, got off to a good start, and we have consistently developed it further since then. The app gives beet growers a digital overview and digitizes the end-to-end process in the true sense of the word from contract to yield. With the Planet Beet project, we are setting another important software course. This comprehensive digital concept aims to link agribusiness with food production on the basis of new technologies, thus laying the foundation for new digital business models in a changing agricultural environment. Our third focus area is to create efficient processes that are lean, fast, and simple. These will be process automation and applications for day-to-day work, such as spare parts management, maintenance, or predictive maintenance.
All in all, we are in the process of expanding the group data focus many times over. We see the efficient use of data as a fundamental prerequisite for designing intelligent processes and digital services. Let us now turn to the fourth focus area on page 30. The topic that concerns us all, sustainability. Sustainability has always been a cornerstone of Südzucker's DNA and is therefore a logical addition focus area within our 2026 PLUS strategy. The projects and goals mentioned at this point last year were all successfully implemented and form a very good basis for the planned next steps. First, in the past fiscal year, we once again significantly upgraded the area of sustainability with the realignment of the corporate function sustainability and its firm establishment in the company.
The next step was to develop a group-wide sustainability strategy, in the course of which the key topics just shown were identified. For three of the topics, emission, occupational safety, and diversity, we have already developed targets and defined measures. In this fiscal year, we will develop the content of the remaining focus areas and decide on measures to implement them. In February 2022, we also joined the Science-Based Target Initiative, SBTI. Another major topic this year will therefore be the determination of our climate targets by SBTI in terms of our plans to reduce CO₂ emission and achieve climate neutrality. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for your attention and hand over to my colleague on the executive board, Thomas Kölbl.
Thank you, Niels. Ladies and gentlemen, from my side, a warm welcome to all of you. As we still have enough time for the following Q&A session, I refer only to selected pages of this presentation, but I will guide you through marking the respective page number I'm talking about. Let me start with the executive summary on page 32. As you can see on this slide, we have reached all of our communicated targets for business year 2021/ 2022, with strong increases in revenues and earnings against last fiscal year 2021. This is all the more important as we had not adjusted the targets since the beginning of the fiscal year, but had merely tightened the original operating profit range somewhat towards the end of the business year. Let's move on to page 33. Cash flow increased in parallel to the earnings development.
Net financial debt was reduced by about EUR 50 million, and the equity ratio was kept at a solid level of 44%. Let's move on to page 34. Business year 2021 marked the expected turning point regarding the financial ratios. This journey was continued in the last fiscal 2021/2022. EBITDA has been significantly further improved to around EUR 700 million, while CapEx spending was still reduced. As a result, structural cash flow was confirmed at a level strongly above EUR 300 million. Again, the overall improvement was led by Sugar Segment with a very strong positive earnings delta of more than EUR 100 million, supported by earnings improvements in segments CropEnergies and Starch. Our non-sugar activities showed again enormous resilience in a strongly challenging coronavirus pandemic and cost inflation environment, confirming their high EBITDA level of around EUR 560 million.
All this has led to both rating agencies improving their rating outlook from negative to stable in 2021/ 2022. We are also happy with our solid and very sound liquidity and debt maturity profile. Let's move on to page 35 and the outlook for fiscal 2022, 2023. Also in fiscal 2022, 2023, we continue to build on a strong profitable non-sugar business as a reliable fundament. In addition to this, sugar segment will continue its turnaround with an expected significant increase in operating result. This opens up the possibility for the group operating result to be higher against fiscal 2021/ 2022. The expected earnings range is EUR 300 million-EUR 400 million. Certainly, the development of the Ukraine war will play an important role in this context, as Niels described. Structural cash flow should develop positively in parallel despite the budgeted growth investments.
As of now, ladies and gentlemen, despite an environment strongly characterized by cost inflation and a reinforcement of the already high volatility, we record a very good start to the new business year. Let's move on to page 37 and the segmental overview for business year 2021/2022. As already mentioned, the turnaround in Sugar Segment was continued, helped by higher sugar prices from October 2021, despite additional pressure from cost inflation. Our non-sugar activities have confirmed the already achieved high earnings level. More details later, segment by segment. Let's move on to page 38 and the most notable items in the income statement and balance sheet. The result from restructuring and special items was mainly affected by the Ukraine war due to impairment in connection with plant locations in the Fruit Segment.
The equity result recorded by the sugar and starch segments related mainly to charges from the investment in ED&F Man. The losses accumulated in fiscal 2021/ 2022 completely consumed the carrying amount of the investment in ED&F Man. As of fiscal 2022-2023, ED&F Man will be recognized as another investment with a carrying amount of EUR 0. In addition, the joint venture, Beta Pura, suffered losses due to the Ukrainian conflict. Because of the current uncertainties surrounding its future business development, the remaining investment carrying amount of the at-equity consolidated company was also written down in full. Both burdens, the restructuring result, as well as the at equity result, with together EUR 100 million, were not cash relevant. Let's take the next step on page 39.
The financial result totaled EUR -37 million, including net interest result of EUR -30 million and result from other financing activities of EUR -7 million. The foreign exchange result included in other financial results improved significantly. In addition, the previous year's other financial results reflected the expense from the complete write-down of minority interest in a French sugar factory subsequently sold in the last fiscal 2021. The taxes paid relate mainly to the taxation of the positive results contribution of the non-sugar segments, whereas deferred taxes were not capitalized for the losses in the Sugar Segment. Let's continue on page 40. Cash flow per share rose significantly. Reported earnings per share reached EUR 0.32, and underlying earnings per share came in close to EUR 0.80. Dividend proposal rose from EUR 0.20 to EUR 0.40 per share.
Let's continue on page 50, starting with segmental development with Special Products. Special Products Segment revenues grew by 4%, mainly due to an overall positive sales revenue development. Operating results fell substantially compared to the previous year. The negative impact of rising raw material, energy, logistics, and other costs could not be covered by higher sales revenues, with costs being passed on to customers only in part and with time lag as reflected in the operating margin. Let's continue on page 51 with the outlook for Special Products. We expect significantly higher revenues, driven in particular by higher sales revenues. We do not expect to be able to offset the jump in raw material and energy costs to higher sales revenues in the first half of fiscal 2022-2023. This will have to wait until the second half of the fiscal year.
Overall, we therefore expect the full 2022/2023 fiscal year operating results to decline significantly. Let's continue on page 53 with CropEnergies. Revenues in the CropEnergies segment rose significantly, driven by both substantially higher sales revenues and increased volumes. Operating results was therefore once again higher than last year's strong figures, reaching a record of EUR 127 million. Higher volumes and substantially increased sales revenues more than offset the significant rise in raw material and energy costs. Let's continue on page 54 with the price development in the ethanol markets. On this graph on page 44, we illustrate two things. First, the continuous positive underlying upward trend in ethanol pricing over time, and second, the increase in price volatility in the coronavirus pandemic and cost inflation environment.
Mobility restrictions had an impact mainly in the first corona year. Now, we see a good ethanol price level, but we also face elevated grain prices. Now let's continue on page 55 with the CropEnergies outlook for 2022, 2023. As said, the mobility situation is expected to normalize in fiscal 2022, 2023 in view of the expected weakening of the corona pandemic. However, at the same time, the impact of the Ukraine war is difficult to assess. We are assuming that energy and raw materials for ethanol production will continue to be available the full fiscal year. We further assume that EU member states will largely comply with biofuel blending rules, which will lead to continued high capacity utilization. We also expect that higher energy and raw material costs will continue to be offset by higher selling prices for ethanol, food, and animal feed.
Accordingly, we expect another strong year with revenues to range between EUR 1.3 billion and EUR 1.4 billion and an operating result ranging between EUR 105 million and EUR 155 million. Let's continue on page 57 with Segment Starch. The Starch Segment was able to significantly boost revenues to EUR 940 million, driven by rising sales revenues and more than satisfactory volume growth. The higher volume and sales revenues growth. The operating result up sharply for the reporting period to EUR 57 million. Substantially higher raw material and energy costs were more than offset by sales revenue and volume growth. Rising ethanol prices in particular had a positive impact, especially in the second half of the fiscal year. Let's continue on page 58 with the outlook of Segment Starch. We expect the Starch Segment to post revenues significantly above the previous year.
However, the anticipated significantly higher sales revenues will not be sufficient to completely offset sharply higher raw material and energy costs. We therefore anticipate the operating results to decline moderately. Let's continue with Fruit Segment on page 60. The Fruit Segment's revenue rose moderately from the previous year. This was due to the increase in selling price for fruit preparations, as well as higher sales volumes and revenues for fruit juice concentrates. The operating result was slightly below last year. In the fruit preparations division, higher sales revenues were unable to fully compensate for higher costs. In the fruit juice concentrate division, both sales volumes and margins were up, resulting overall in a positive earnings contribution. Let's continue on page 61 with the outlook for 2022, 2023. We are expecting the Fruit Segment revenues to rise moderately and that both divisions will contribute.
Even so, we expect the fruit juice concentrate division result to improve. The immediate impact of the production plants in Ukraine and Russia will likely cause the Fruit Segment's operating results to drop significantly. Let's continue with Sugar Segment on page 64. Revenues in the Sugar Segment increased significantly due to both higher sugar sales revenues and higher volumes. The price increase achieved in the past 2021 sugar marketing year took effect at the beginning of fiscal 2021/2022, and since October 2021, the additional price increases at the beginning of the new 2021/2022 sugar marketing year. The Sugar Segment was able to cut its operating loss substantially to EUR -21 million in 2021/2022.
At the beginning of the fiscal year, the higher sugar sales revenues and sales volume were offset, in particular, by higher production costs from the 2020 campaign due to raw material prices as well as, in some cases, sharp cost increases for energy, packaging materials and raw materials since the third quarter. These substantial cost increases and sales volumes at the end of the fiscal year that were higher than in the previous year but below expectation meant that despite improved capacity utilization in the 2021 campaign, the target of an operating profit was at the end, not achieved. Let's continue on page 65. Let me revisit our view on the global sugar market.
In its latest update in March 2022, IHS Markit has confirmed its deficit outlook for running sugar marketing year 2021/2022 with 1.5 million tons, which confirms another deficit year. The stock-to-use ratio is expected to drop from 39%-38%. For the next sugar marketing year, 2022/2023, the forecast shows almost balanced market with a stable stock-to-use ratio down to 38%. This confirms a positive fundamental market environment for at least the next 12 months. Let's have a look at the European sugar market environment on page 66. EU has changed to a net importer status since campaign 2018, which has led to already three steps of price increase in the last three sugar marketing years. Looking at the significant further price increase in the last six months, we monitor several reasons.
First, the world market price as the fundamental pricing starting point has increased. Second, we expect another year of decreasing EU acreage. Third, overall cost inflation leads to higher procurement price for the whole industry. In this environment, close to 100% of our volume of the campaign 2022 is up for negotiation. Let's take a look at the sugar outlook for 2022/2023 on page 67. As said, another world market deficit is expected for the current 2021/2022 sugar marketing year, resulting in a further reduction in inventories. This world sugar production-consumption balance into 2022/23 sugar marketing year and inventories remaining at a low level. Clearly, the world market environment should remain positive. In Europe, the higher price of alternative feed crops will lead to a further reduction in feed cultivation.
New sugar production is expected to be less than last year. Südzucker expects a positive market environment in which it should be enabled to pass on sharply higher raw material and energy costs to the market, by significantly rising prices for sugar effective October 2022. With production sales volume slightly lower, we anticipate a significant increase in sales revenues to rise sharply and average over the year. We expect the Sugar Segment's operating results to range between EUR 0 and EUR 100 million. For the first half of 2022/2023, we expect a roughly balanced result, as higher prices since October 2021 will be offset, among other things, by higher raw material and energy costs. Starting October 2022, we expect the already significantly higher spot prices to enable us to conclude substantially improved customer contracts.
Let me now summarize the overall outlook and the presentation on the following pages, starting at page 69. The Ukraine war that started at the beginning of fiscal 2022/2023 and continues to this day, has further reinforced the already existing high volatility in the target markets and price increase in the procurement markets. The resulting economic and financial ramifications and duration of this temporary exceptional situation on top of the COVID pandemic are very difficult to assess. There are also further risks related to the COVID pandemic. Our outlook assumes that the Ukraine war will be temporary and remain regionally contained, that physical supplies of energy and raw material will be guaranteed, and that the target and procurement markets will at least partly return to more normal conditions over the course of fiscal 2022/2023.
In this context, the expected pass-through of significantly higher prices, particularly in the raw materials and energy sector, into new customer contracts will be of decisive importance. Ladies and gentlemen, having said that, let me now move on with the concrete figures. Group revenue should come in at EUR 8.7 billion-EUR 9.1 billion and operating result in a range between EUR 300 million and EUR 400 million. Let me also repeat that we have seen a promising start into business year 2022/2023, which we already shared with the markets. Sugar segment should see a slightly positive H1 and an increase in H2 operating performance. On full year basis, we expect an earnings range between EUR 0 and EUR 100 million. Special Products segment operating result is expected to come in significantly below the previous year level.
CropEnergies Segment's operating result is expected to range between EUR 105 million and EUR 155 million. That means a confirmation of the strong last year results. Starch Segment should see a moderate earnings decrease and Fruit Segment should be burdened by the charges from the Ukraine war and therefore report significantly lower earnings. Let me continue with page 70. Group EBITDA should follow the positive operating result development. CapEx is expected to stay on a modest level. Net financial debt is expected to be above previous year level, reflecting higher working capital needs in light of the inflationary environment. Let me summarize the overall outlook and the presentation with reference to pages 73 and 74. As you can see on page 73, the diversified structural EBITDA and cash flow increases our scope for action going forward.
Despite the expected increase in CapEx, there is still headroom to act in the upcoming years. Let me finish the presentation with slide 74. Ladies and gentlemen, to wrap up our presentation, I would like to share with you our ambition to lead Südzucker back to creating value. We want to continue growing with the business areas of our company. Niels described it very clearly. However, our goal must be to achieve a return on capital employed that substantially exceeds the cost of capital of around 7%. We have therefore already covered part of the distance. We want to show the direction and clarify our aspiration, which is already partly backed up by identified measures, but also still needs to be fleshed out in terms of additional content, further developed and elaborated.
For this reason, it does not yet make sense to break down the overall goal in two individual parts. This is now being done in steps of our strategy implementation. In the areas of proteins and bio-based chemicals, we have shown you examples of where we stand, the draft we are pursuing, that we are already in the concrete implementation stage, but also that there is still some way to go to achieve our level of ambition. Finally, I would like to summarize my presentation with four statements. First, turnaround sugar is due to continue driving group earnings improvement. Second, our diversified portfolio will be able to help managing the additional challenges caused by the Ukraine war. Third, structural cash flow opens up new opportunities to shape Südzucker's future.
Fourth, we are not hesitating to share our ambitions with you and to realize them step by step in the next years, despite today's challenges and those still ahead of us. Thank you all for your attention, and I give back to Nikolai.
Thank you, gentlemen. We would now like to open up the floor for your questions and hand back to the operator.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. First question is from the line of Oliver Schwarz from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Hello, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got several, but I will limit myself to three for my first try, and I will ask them one by one so we can get a detailed discussion going here. Firstly, I was surprised by the lack of comments on the plan of German environmental minister, Steffi Lemke, who fleshed out that she wanted to reduce the admixture of biofuels in gasoline and in diesel and phase them out completely by 2030. Your subsidiary, CropEnergies, in their reporting yesterday, were, at least in their press release, quite vocal in regard to what they think about that. I guess they take the threat to their business model quite seriously. I was just wondering why you did not comment on that topic at all.
Is that a risk that is not worth discussing in your view because it is unlikely to become reality? Or do you think the impact of such a change in regulation would be so minimal that the impact on Südzucker Group would be negligible? Or whatever is it that prompted you not to comment on those plans? That would be my first question.
Yeah. Oliver, thanks for this opening. First of all, we had yesterday the CropEnergies call, and in this call you were on the call. I think there was a long and good discussion about, and I think the CropEnergies position to that was very clear. Therefore, we only described this topic in our presentation. But now to the, let me say, to the core, to the financial economics behind that, clearly, there is a discussion, and especially in Germany, we have this discussion. But clearly, there are several, let me say, views you can have on this topic. One view is the view of Miss Lemke.
Clearly, as you're also aware, so far there is no, let me say, unified position within the German government. Let me say, there's a long way to come to a position. It is open what will be the outcome, which may be a confirmation due to the decisions the government took one and a half years ago, or maybe a slight decrease of the cap. So far what we see, what we know, this is really today a German discussion, and it is not a European-wide discussion. CropEnergies is a, let me say, a European-wide producer, yeah, and has clearly a strong foothold when we would measure it with turnover.
We talk about a share of 25% in Germany, from CropEnergies' perspective alone. That gives you a view on the risk position for CropEnergies. If there would be a reduction from the crop cut by 1% or 2%, this is limited, and it is also limited from group perspective. Clearly this is a risk. The guidance of CropEnergies for the current fiscal 2022/2023 does not assume that there will be a change in the regulation.
Okay. Thank you very much for that. Very clear. Secondly, I like to discuss a bit, if you don't mind, Südzucker's outlook for the current fiscal year. Looking at the segmental split, obviously Special Products, Starch, Fruit, all expected down year-on-year. CropEnergies, at least at the midpoint of the current guidance, are more or less unchanged. Basically, the implied improvement from EUR 332 million to midpoint of guidance, EUR 350 million, is to be contributed by sugar. The target for sugar, which resembles the original target of last year of 0 to 100 million EUR, implies that there might be, at least at the midpoint of the guidance, a swing of EUR 77 million in the current fiscal year based on higher prices.
Looking at how the price is developed as you provided, thank you for that, a chart on page 66 of your presentation, it seems that especially spot prices have gone up quite substantially. So the, let's say, earnings increase that you supplied seems to be a bit disconnected from the strong increase in the sugar price as such. Given that your farmers receive a formula-based contribution of the earnings on the sugar beets derived by the sugar production, the projected increase in your sugar results seems to be a bit conservative when looking at those price charts here. Can you elaborate why that might be the case?
Oliver, to clarify for all the people in the group, first of all, your calculation for the underlying earnings delta in the sugar segment to reach the group outlook is EUR 70 million, yes. Taking the - 20 last year, taking the midpoint, we talk about EUR 70 million delta. First point. Second point, you refer that this might be conservative looking at our price chart, looking at that, what we see on the screens when we are looking at world market prices, spot prices. That seems to be right, but there are some points we have to be careful about.
First of all, we are talking so far about the spot price development, and we have to assume that we say an average pricing for all our contracts. All contracts are open, so it is difficult to assess. It's a different if we are talking about limited volumes in a spot price market or if the sugar should sell 3.5 million or in this together more than 4 million tons in the market. First point. Second point is that we are going to be here clearly for a big price step, yeah. This is clear. But this price increase we will reach will only be affected for five months in fiscal 2022, 2023. First effect.
Second effect, we foresee in that environment a strong increase in the pricing for our raw material costs. The third point, we have a really good hedging position in energy for the campaign 2020, but there are still open positions we have to fulfill, and therefore we have to pay the extremely high market price. That together, let me say, has negative impacts and in addition, only EUR 5 million, five months impact of higher prices. With that altogether, we say this is a realistic approach for the sugar business. Clearly, I think as I said in the speech, H1 is more or less breakeven with the knowledge we have today.
H2 should show the way with increase in earnings, bring us then to this positive EUR 50 million if we use the midpoint, and that will open room clearly for 2023, 2024, but this is very early in the market period, talk about 2023, 2024. I hope this helps.
Okay. Thank you. Very clear. Just to clarify, the original goal for the last fiscal year was also a breakeven to a EUR 100 million earnings contribution from the Sugar Segment. Obviously, that didn't materialize with result of EUR -20 million by the end of the year. Could you just highlight what prevented you from reaching your original goal? Was that only higher costs in regards to logistics and energy that was not anticipated, or was there something else that contributed to the result?
Let me say, Oliver, there are two main points. First point was we reached volume increase in 2021/ 2022, but not to that extent we assumed at the beginning, also due to lower final campaign output. We reached our pricing goals more or less we set at the beginning of the fiscal 2021/ 2022, but that means we couldn't cover then the strong increase in the cost base due to inflation, which we see then in the second half of the year. Clearly, that were the main points. For all of the call, we couldn't profit from the strong price increase we have seen then starting from Autumn 2021. Oliver, I think then we are here.
Thank you so much for that. I will go back into the line, but I try to return later.
Oliver, thank you. Good starting point.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of John Ennis from Goldman. Please go ahead.
Hello, good afternoon, everyone. I have a question on the sugar business, and I'll give you both parts and then you can tackle them one by one. If I think about the current spot prices that look to be from your chart EUR 900, that's almost double your contracting rate in September, October of 2021. I appreciate in answer to your previous question, you said that the lack of volumes distorts this current spot price a little bit. Embedded within your guidance, have you assumed a price that is closer to the current world price of EUR 550, or somewhere between the world price of EUR 550 and the spot prices in Europe of EUR 900? A little bit of context there would be helpful.
The second part of this question, and I appreciate it's difficult to give guidance for FY 2024, but if we take the higher sugar prices that seem to be on slide 66, this would imply a major uplift to sugar profitability in FY 2024. Can you help in quantifying how we should think about that uplift? If the price you negotiate is, let's say, EUR 100 higher than the last contracting round, what is the implied EBIT drop-through for 2024? Of course, we can make our own assumption on where the price lands for that fiscal year. Some sort of sensitivity I think would be beneficial for the group. That's my two parts. Thank you.
Thanks for your two parts of the question. To give some light, you know, we don't disclose absolute pricing numbers, but clearly in the framework we have today, we are going from price increase for the next sugar marketing year, starting from October of more than EUR 200 a ton. Yeah. As I said before, let me say, when you take the average then, which is going in the fiscal year 2022/2023, we're talking about, let me say, around 100 EUR increase. These are the main underlying parameters and clearly, as said before, we have to negotiate the beet pricing. Many open points. We don't know how the energy pricing will develop, et cetera.
There are a lot of uncertainties behind. Clearly, we have to see that the upcoming negotiations with the farmers, because they have the same cost increases in their cost structure as the factors have. That will be a hefty one, this is clear. We have to be very, very conservative in our assumptions. Clearly, to confirm, there will be then if pricing will stay on that level, if we would reach this EUR 200 in October 2022, and if we could confirm, yeah, this 200, this increase also in October 2023, then we would have then a 12-month effect in fiscal 2023, 2024. This is only the mechanic behind. Yeah. There are a lot of open pieces.
No, I understand. Just to follow up. The base case you're working with implicit within your guidance is that you can increase your contracting price by around EUR 200, which is effectively somewhere in the range of EUR 600 per ton. Low EUR 600s is what you're going for. Can I confirm that?
It is. If you look on the European price reporting, then it is higher than EUR 600.
Okay, understood. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Next question is from the line of Michael Schäfer from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my questions here. Sticking to sugar, and back in January, we discussed basically for the Sugar Segment a cost inflation coming from raw materials and also energy, a bill of around EUR 100 million+ . Back then in January, you were saying basically that 2/3 is coming through only in the new fiscal year we are currently in. I read basically that obviously since then, a lot of things have changed for the worse from a cost perspective for you. Maybe you can update us on the overall cost bill, how this looks like now compared to the EUR 100 million you projected back in January.
Maybe making a reference to this one of your competitors in the North just recently indicated the kind of agreement with his farmers basically on the for sugar beet contract price, quite a substantial increase. The question is, what have you baked in essentially on the beet cost side for the new sugar marketing year, which is then coming up? This would be the first question.
Michael, thanks. Let me say we have two parameters, which are the biggest one with the highest influence. This is the raw material costs and the energy costs. Let me say the pricing for campaign 2021/2022 are now locked in. We make clear assessments for the next campaign year, October 2022 to September 2023. Taking into account our sales price assumption, taking into account our own cost structure and taking into account the cost structure of our farmers and assess that. I think we have here a conservative approach of the pricing, the raw material costs for the next campaign, 2022/2023.
Another point is, let me say, our energy costs here, we have the situation, as said before, that we have, first of all, at the end of the day, higher campaign costs, as we assumed in our quarterly calls in January, yeah, due to higher raw material costs, and at the end of the day, higher energy prices. This hurt, let me say, the production costs, of the volumes we sell now in the first half year. That are, let me say, the main points and which higher energy price than in January. We have also put in the calculation for the production cost for the next campaign, 2022/ 2023.
One important point is we have also to look on, let me say, the extreme high prices might ignore it for alternative crops. This is also one assessment we made, that in times with wheat prices of EUR 350-EUR 400, that lifts, let me say, also the wheat prices up.
Okay. Can you just on this one a quick follow-up. I mean, this, you're now. I recall back in January, you targeted flat acreage. Now you're suggesting basically a decline in your acreage and also production given average yields, which obviously is lowering your campaign length further down the road. How should we read basically your target of acreage? Is this a kind of 5% decline or anything? It would be helpful as well.
Yeah. Let me say, the latest figure is around 5%, 5%-6%. This is, let me say, also development we see over Europe, that also our competitors have to face with lower acreage, which on the other side clearly helps the market.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Switching topics. The second question would be on BENEO. I mean, we have seen a lot of action from you guys, you know, the intended production of alternatives, and with the EUR 550 million CapEx, which you have just reported a couple of weeks ago in mid-May or mid-April, sorry,
Mm-hmm.
Today's announcement with the EUR 100 million. Can you just put this into perspective what this may mean in terms of you know revenue and earnings potential we should read from this one? And maybe as a related question on BENEO in your prepared remarks basically you indicated on the capacity expansion you have initiated across all the various subsegments of BENEO. So maybe an indicator where are we there now? What's the kind of growth potential you have now locked in with the higher capacity which we should assume basically going forward? And maybe another related question on the pet part of the pet food part of this business.
Any indication, what kind of share this is contributing to the overall activity of BENEO? Thanks.
Niels speaking here. Let me try to start, and the colleagues will probably add if I'm not answering all details here. First of all, I think the investment we have done, some of them are in implementation. The production capacity, for example, is an investment which is going over a couple of years to get full capacity. Anyhow, this will help us really to bring certain parts together, where we can add new technology to what we have already in BENEO, where we can add also know-how from different parts of our business into, let's say, one hub, where we are creating new products, new innovations into it and supplying more customers and more territories.
The investment in Meatless we have done is helping us to bring a new technology into it, mainly in fish substitutes and meat substitutes as well. What we are going to do is to increase our business. We have a business in protein at the moment, which is on a three-digit basis, but we have to be very careful how to count it, because only a part of this is really texturized products, which is on a double-digit at the moment turnover. We see that with these investments we have done over time, we are really getting this business up to a three-digit turnover business within the next years.
I think it's a substantial part of the BENEO business, and it is also an interesting add-on to the entire business of our Südzucker Group. What we see is Meatless is just starting. It's a small company which is just growing.
Over years, growing fast at the moment with good profitability, double-digit percentage points, which helps us also to contribute here. At the beginning, I think we have to be very clear, it is a starting point. It's a good add-on to what we are doing, and we are hoping to bring this up to a substantial part of our business over the next years. I think I'm just looking around if someone can add to it.
Niels, I would add with the figures to the second part of Michael's question. Let me say the additional potential of. I understand right, you asked for the additional potential of the with the CapEx in the existing structure and additional, what is the potential for the protein sector, right?
Yes, that's true.
Yeah. Let me say, with the investments we decided and which are underway, we foresee a midterm clearly more than EUR 100 million turnover. With the proteins investments we did, Niels explained clearly, midterm also strong scaleup to triple digit revenues.
Mm-hmm.
From close to zero up. Yeah.
Okay. The pet food share and animal feed share in BENEO, just a rough indication that we're getting an idea on.
I think a rough estimate, but Nicholas should then double-check that after the call. I think is a good number, is 10%.
Okay. One final question, and then I'll go back in queue, hopefully a more simple one. On the CapEx side, I mean, you're now going for EUR 400 million, so just looking more midterm, is this the new normal then basically, or how should we think about the EUR 400 million?
I would say, looking forward, if we're looking on the real big and great potentials out of the Strategy 2026 PLUS, with the potential needs shown in biochemicals, proteins, we are clear that that is a very strong and good starting point. We would like to add other, let me say, parts to it. We should, let me say in the midterm, look on such a CapEx number or, if there are, let me say, really the, if the market potential are so good as we say, then clearly we would also go for higher investments if it is necessary.
Mm-hmm.
These are clearly moving targets, yeah, depending on moving numbers, depending on the targets.
Okay. Thank you very much. I go back in queue.
Yeah. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone telephone. Next question is from the line of Alex Sloane from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. The first one, just in terms of the mid-term ambition levels that you shared at high level, I appreciate you don't wanna kind of go too much into the detail there, but you know, over EUR 1 billion EBITDA implies around about EUR 300 million improvement from the midpoint of your guidance for fiscal 2023. Yeah, is it fair to assume that over half of that improvement should be coming from Sugar Segment? That's the first question. Just the second one, I was wondering if you could maybe help a little bit more on the outlook for Special Products. I mean, you talked about BENEO and its kind of attractive structural positioning in B2B ingredients.
I mean, that industry generally has quite good pricing power. I'm kind of surprised, you know, in the outlook for kind of significant profit decline. Is that all coming from the pizza business? Is this kind of, I guess, a temporary decline? Yeah, any more color there would be great. Thanks.
Yeah. No, thanks. Let me start with the second part of your questions. Let me say, first of all, you are right. In the Special Products segment, we guide a further strong decrease in operating profit. You are also right that this is mainly linked to Freiberger, as Niels explained in his presentation. We are facing still high comps in that deep frozen pizza area, but now we see the turning point in volumes. We see growth also at start of the fiscal year 2022/2023. The main point of why we are very conservative in our guidance is the phasing issue. Yeah.
It is not possible in all the areas to put the cost with this dramatic price increases, and it was not one step from one day to the other. It was a period over six months, and it is really difficult to assess the right pricing, price increase, et cetera. It's a phasing issue, and as we said before, we are confident that starting with the second half of the fiscal 2022/2023, we see a clear turning point, especially in the deep-frozen pizza in Europe as well as in U.S. The first question on input level, it is not half of the increase coming from sugar, it is really more than half coming from sugar.
Got it. Yeah. That's very helpful. If I could maybe just squeeze in one more of a housekeeping one. I think you talked about a working capital outflow for the year. I mean, sorry if I've missed it, but in terms of kind of just framing the size of that in terms of a kind of a base case, I mean, is it fair to assume, you know, if we hold sort of inventory or hold working capital levels as a percentage of sales, it just.
Yeah.
Reflects the higher sales, or any color there? Thanks.
This is a good one, and it is difficult to assess due to the campaign character of our business. We have to take assumptions. Now we know the aggregate in sugar business, but nobody know how will be the final yield in autumn. This could swing between ±10% to ±15% . It's first of all, very difficult to assess. Second factor is, let me say also the final pricing of all the products, of all raw materials, is they're also very difficult to assess. But really what we know in such a narrow environment that the stock prices will go up. That is clear.
Looking on our guidance in revenues, we talk about an increase of EUR 1.2 billion-EUR 1.3 billion. That means higher receivables at the closing date. Yeah. It's really difficult to assess. We clearly flag it, yeah. This is, let me say, also the main driver that we are guiding higher net financial debts, yeah. With the current status, a good number is EUR 150 million swing could be possible. Yeah.
That's helpful. Thank you.
We have a follow-up question from the line of Oliver Schwarz from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my follow-up questions. Firstly, I saw that short-term provisions came down year on year. Were they cashed out or were they retained and helped to inflate earnings?
Short-term provisions. I think we should, at the moment, I can't answer the swing. Maybe if we take the next one and the team is looking-
Sure. No problem.
Maybe after the swing.
Yeah. Sure. It's no problem at all. Secondly, ED&F Man, I think I heard you correctly that the value of the equity value of the participation has been now written down to EUR 0 , obviously implying that the cash flow potential from that source is rather limited, to say the least. Do you envisage, let's say, any earnings potential in the at equity result from that participation in the not-too-distant future? Or is that something that is basically solved and might leave the company at some point in time? That would be my second question.
You are right. The remaining value is zero. We don't assume midterm cash returns from the underlying business of ED&F Man. That is our assumption. The only thing what we see is that we will have a final, let me say, currency gain between the equity of ED&F Man and the equity of the parent company, Südzucker, that we have to recognize when we switch out from the at equity accounting and it will be effective then in the first quarter. The amount, Oliver, is around EUR 10 million. But this is not a cash relevant number. This is only a booking number.
Okay. Thank you for that. Can you elaborate perhaps a bit on your energy hedging for the current and the next fiscal year? Given that prices have been quite volatile in the past, I guess you might have stopped, let's say, locking in energy costs or prices for this year or the next year. If we're talking about your level you are hedged for this and next year, could you give an indication in that regard?
Clearly, we can give some indication when we are looking at the current fiscal year 2022/2023. Then we have group-wide across all the businesses which have a high energy cost component. Then we talk about a hedging rate close to 70%. This is also, let me say, the hedging rate for our biggest energy consumer, sugar. Going forward to 2023/2024, this hedging rate on group level is going down to 66%. Although still a comfortable hedging rate in that environment, especially when we are looking at the difference between the hedge price and the market price.
One point I would like to add, we have to act, Oliver, and to cover the open, let me say, volumes due to the fact that we have to start, let me say, the campaign then in September, October, the different regions in Europe. There we do everything we have to secure the energy supply also to be prepared if there would be interruption of energy supply from Russia. So that we have to cover maybe in some areas where the risk is higher, for example, in the Austrian factories or in the South German factories, then we are looking for alternatives, yeah, which we then use, for example, instead of gas. Yeah.
Okay. Lastly, I apologize in advance, this might be a more esoteric question, but looking at your strategy and at least some of that in the midterm is, as we also learned today, also M&A based.
Given that your track record for past M&A transactions has been, let's say, mixed, and given that you seem to be mostly interested in assets that are, let's say, provided by companies that have a more startup character and might have a different culture from what we have in Südzucker when compared to that, startup companies, how do you try to, let's say, make sure that the highly relevant part of the acquired company's personnel is willing to stay with Südzucker and provide their essential knowledge also to the new group and not hopping to some other startup from there? How will you make sure that, let's say, the cultural fusion of those assets, those activities and your group goes rather smoothly?
I mean, in the past, you've mostly acquired companies that seem, for example, like, ED&F Man, which is more or less has a connection to the Sugar Segment or the, let's say, the acquisition you did with when you acquired assets in America that fit very well in to Freiberger, that didn't seem to be such, let's say, a cultural gap between those companies you acquired and your existing operations. In the case of those M&A transactions that you're planning in regard to mostly, let's say, young startup companies that have, like, 10, 15, 20 years under the belt and have perhaps a double-digit sales number that they can provide initially to the group.
How to make sure that those people that are crucial to those operations remain with Südzucker?
I think it's a very fair question with regard to the history, some of our investments. I think we are also very aware about the cultural difference between parts of our business and the startup company, because we are not really a startup culture here in this company, which probably also doesn't fit. Anyhow, looking at BENEO, I think there we have a home where we have a slightly different way of doing our business and probably compared to the very old and traditional parts of our business. What we're also doing, so therefore, BENEO was the purchaser of this part of the business. That's the first thing.
The second thing is that we are also giving these small teams, which are coming in, a certain amount of freedom, to go further on the path they have just started because we saw where they are going to, we saw what their planning are, and we are very, very pleased of what they are doing, so we don't want to disturb them on just achieving. One of the main reasons why Meatless was willing to join, Südzucker, specifically BENEO, was because of the global sales team of BENEO, which was not with Meatless, which is mainly focused on parts of Europe.
We see also the synergies, but as you said, we should give them the room, the environment of not being a startup as such, but keeping close to the culture of a startup, and we are trying to give this to these teams.
Thank you.
Oliver, to the open question, the reduction of short-term provisions. We use this provision from the restructuring programs, especially redundancy plans, for example, and we have to have then the cash out, for example, in the last fiscal year.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for participating today. I see there are no further questions. It seems to be that we have been quite extensive here and answered all of your questions. As you know, there might be further questions as you digest our intense material. We're happy to take them in the next days, today, tomorrow, whenever you want. We're always there. Thank you for participating today, and have a good day. Thank you. Goodbye.
Thank you all. Bye-bye.
Thank you.