AFYREN and Südzucker celebrate 5 years of strategic bioeconomy partnership

AFYREN and Südzucker celebrate 5 years of strategic bioeconomy partnership

• Partners commit to renewing their long-term collaboration to drive sustainable innovation and support Europe’s transition to a circular, low-carbon economy
• AFYREN and Südzucker are establishing a new value chain in Europe for sustainable, biobased products

Clermont-Ferrand/Lyon, May 5, 2025, 17:45 pm CET – AFYREN (Euronext: ALAFY), a greentech company offering manufacturers biobased, low-carbon ingredients through a unique fermentation technology based on a circular model, and Südzucker AG (SZUG.DE) have committed to extend their long-term partnership to advance sustainable, biobased and circular chemical production aligned with the EU’s green transition goals.

The partnership, central to the EU’s AFTER-BIOCHEM initiative led by AFYREN, was solidified in a 2021 multi-year contract. As part of the agreement, Südzucker AG supplies non-food agricultural by-products from sugar production as feedstock for AFYREN NEOXY, AFYREN’s first industrial plant producing a family of seven 100% biobased carboxylic acids, ensuring procurement safety on a local level. Over the past years, the two partners have established a unique long-term feedstock partnership and created a new value chain in Europe.

Biomass availability is a key challenge for the bioeconomy, which the EU recognizes as a strategic value chain for green growth, industrial resilience, and reduced fossil resources dependence. As demand rises, securing sustainable and responsibly sourced feedstock is essential to avoid competition with food and ensure long-term resource availability within planetary boundaries. By extending their collaboration beyond AFTER-BIOCHEM, AFYREN and Südzucker AG contribute to the development of a strong bioeconomy sector throughout Europe, converting sustainably sourced non-food biomass into multiple high added-value products for diversified markets.

“Our ongoing partnership with Südzucker, Europe’s leading sugar producer, has been instrumental in securing long-term, competitive access to key raw materials and ensuring supply safety,” said Nicolas SORDET, Chief Executive Officer of AFYREN. “Together, we have built a circular economy model through the AFTER-BIOCHEM project, creating new biobased value chains and exploring additional business opportunities to mitigate environmental damage, optimize carbon footprint and drive sustainable agricultural practices.”

An important factor to this partnership is the locality of AFYREN NEOXY and Südzucker AG, which has thousands of hectares neighboring the flagship biorefinery in Carling-Saint-Avold, near the French-German border, thus ensuring a guaranteed supply of local biobased feedstock.

“Our collaboration with AFYREN enables us to contribute to upcycle sugar beet co-products into high-value chemicals, reducing reliance on petroleum derivatives,” noted Marcus Reuter, Head of Co‑products of Südzucker AG. “This partnership underscores our commitment to work with local innovative partners to build a strong bioeconomy sector throughout Europe, turning sustainably sourced non-food biomass into valuable products. By aligning sustainability across our entire value chain, we are meeting evolving customer demands while diversifying the valorization of our product portfolio and contributing to the circular economy our product portfolio and contribute to a circular bioeconomy that aligns with evolving market demands.”

The partnership enables AFYREN and Südzucker AG to explore new opportunities for strategic collaborations, ensuring sustainable agricultural practices to help build the new bioeconomy beyond borders.

The AFTER-BIOCHEM project, launched in May 2020, supported the creation of the first flagship biorefinery of its kind – AFYREN NEOXY – to convert agricultural co-products into natural, high-value molecules for use in a wide range of industries: fragrances & flavorings, personal care, food & feed, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals. Funded with €33 million from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Program and the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU), now Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE-JU), the consortium includes partners from France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and The Netherlands – among them AFYREN and Südzucker AG. 

About AFYREN

AFYREN is a French greentech company, founded in 2012, focused on providing innovative, sustainable solutions to reduce reliance on fossil-based resources. AFYREN’s proprietary, nature-inspired fermentation technology valorizes local biomass from non-food agricultural co-products to produce 100% biobased, low-carbon carboxylic acids. The company’s sustainable solutions address decarbonization challenges in a wide variety of strategic sectors, including human and animal nutrition, flavors and fragrances, life sciences, materials science, plus lubricants and technical fluids. AFYREN’s competitive, plug-and-play, circular technology enables manufacturers to adopt sustainable solutions without modifying production processes.

The company’s first industrial plant, AFYREN NEOXY, a joint venture with Bpifrance's SPI fund, is based in the Grand-Est region of France, serving primarily the European market. AFYREN is also pursuing a project in Thailand with a global leader in the sugar industry and is building its presence in the Americas, based on existing distribution agreements.

At the end of 2024, AFYREN employed 130 people across sites in Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Carling Saint-Avold. Committed to continuous innovation, the company invests 20% of its annual budget in R&D to further develop the range of sustainable solutions.

AFYREN is listed on Euronext Growth^® Paris since 2021 (ISIN code: FR0014005AC9, ticker: ALAFY).

For more information, visit www.afyren.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Südzucker AG

Südzucker is a major player in the food industry with its sugar, special products, starch and fruit segments, and Europe's leading ethanol producer with its CropEnergies segment.

In the traditional sugar business, the group is Europe’s number one supplier of sugar products, with 21 sugar factories and two refineries, extending from France in the west via Belgium, Ger-many and Austria, through to Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bosnia, and Moldova in the east. The special products segment, with its consumer-oriented functional ingredients for food and animal feed (BENEO), chilled/frozen products (Freiberger) and portion packs (PortionPack Group), operates in dynamic growth markets. Südzucker's CropEnergies segment is Europe's leading producer of renewable ethanol, with production sites in Germany, Belgium, France and Great Britain. Other products in this segment are protein food and animal feed products as well as biogenic carbon dioxide. The starch segment comprises AGRANA's starch and ethanol activities. The group’s fruit segment operates globally, is the world market leader for fruit preparations for dairies and is a leading supplier of fruit juice concentrates in Europe.

In 2024/25, the group employed about 19.300 persons and generated revenues of about EUR 9.7 billion.

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