It has been confirmed. Please wait while you are joined to the conference. Our midpoint. So let's now turn to slide number 6. There we will have a closer look at our half-year results 2026-2027. So on this page 6, you find the group overview, and you can see after 6 months we have reached the following numbers: starting with group revenues, here they amounted to 4.2 billion, which is almost on par with the previous year's level. Coming to operating EBITDA, you can see that after 6 months we significantly improved to 3.03 million euros versus 189 million in H1 of 2526. Coming to cash flow from operating activities, here also we can see improved significantly from 255 million euro to 441 million euro. And I will provide you later on some more details on the cash flow statement. As a consequence, looking to net financial debt, it turned out at 1.588 million as of 31 August 2026, and so it came in almost 100 million below previous year's level, and 162 million below the end-of-fiscal 2526. And coming to the equity ratio, here the numbers stand at 44.5%, which is still on a very solid level. So we move on to the next page. This is page number 8, and there you have an overview on the segments. I will not comment on each and every number, but to give you the big picture, so looking at the individual segments, starting with sugar, you can see that sugar business improved significantly in Q2 as well as in H1, versus the previous year, but is still negative. So this is still not where we need to be, but the numbers improved, but we are still negative. And also on operating EBITDA level, but in total this loss situation is not satisfactory. As mentioned already, coming to special products and crop energy segment, they recorded significant year-on-year earnings improvements, and were the main drivers for the significant improvements on group level. The starch segment is also developing positively. While the fruit segment, on the other hand, reported a slight decline in earnings but remains still on a very high level. So overall, the group results and performance of each of our segments are fully in line with our expectations, and support our guidance for the full financial year. So we move more particularly on to the next page. It's page 9. There we will have a deeper look on the developments in sugar. And as always, I would like to start with global trends and then moving on to the European trends when it comes to volumes and prices. So I will start on page 9 with an overview on the global sugar market, and the picture is still the same as we had in the quarters before. You can see that on a long-term perspective, if you compare the numbers since 2022-2023 to 2026-2027, so global sugar demand is still growing, volumes depend then on their harvesting conditions, and you can see that according to its latest estimate from September 2026, for the recently ended 25-2026 sugar marketing year, the market research firm, Global Data Forecast, or production increase of roughly 4.1 million tons, primarily driven by higher production in India, Thailand, and Pakistan. So as production growth exceeds consumption in of approximately 2.2 million tons, inventory levels are expected to increase. So they are still, that's the white column, so inventory levels are still on a high level. For the sugar marketing year, that just now started, for those who are not so fully familiar with sugar marketing, is in our fiscal year. So sugar marketing year always starts, first of October, and goes until the end of September. And our fiscal is first of March until the end of Feb. So I'd now turn to the for the sugar marketing year 2026-2027. Here in the same report, Global Data projects a slight deficit of 0.2 million tons, based on a slight increase in production and a continued growth in consumption. What does that mean for the prices? We have seen, but we have a more detailed chart on prices later on. But we can see that the world market price for white sugar was around 345 euros a ton at the beginning of our 2026-2027 fiscal, so we started very, very low. And after an up and down period, the prices stood around 450 euros per ton by mid of September, and are now at 5th of October, they stood at 490. So overall picture, we started with very low prices, at the beginning of our fiscal, but now there is a positive momentum on the pricing. This having said, on the global sugar balance, we move on to the next page. It's page 10. There we will have a more deeper look on the European numbers. And whereas I stated that on world scale, sugar consumption is still growing, this is not the case in Europe. So in Europe, we have to face a slight, let's say, 1 to 1.5 KG negative since 2022-2023. So there's a reduction in consumption in Europe overall, slightly. And I will start with the current sugar marketing year 2025-2026. Here you can see that the EU Commission and analysts see the production forecast almost unchanged. Versus the previous report at 16.6 million tons, with a reduced consumption estimate of 15.2 million tons. And as a consequence, stock levels are now projected to increase to 3.1 billion, as of 30 September 2026. That means right now. And so you can see, if you just compare the white columns to the in the 5 years, you can see that this is by far the highest number, and that means right now, stock levels are still very high, and this is still a burden on prices. And this why have we come to this 3.1 million as of this end of September? This development was supported by the Federal Growing Conditions during the summer of 2025, last year, which offset approximately the 11% reduction in cultivation area. So this having said, on the last sugar marketing year, now looking ahead into the new sugar marketing year, which started 1st of October 2026, that means right now, and there we can see, or we predict, or we see the factors coming in, the picture will be completely different in the new sugar marketing year 2026-2027. And here the sugar beet cultivation area is expected to decline once more in this time by 8%. And as a result, the EU sugar market is anticipated to return to a production deficit. With sugar output falling below consumption and ending stocks declining to around 2.3 million, by the end of September 2027. And one number is really very important. That's you see on the right-hand side, the 13.4 production estimate for the upcoming or new sugar marketing year. This is the estimate of the EU Commission. And but what we do see on the harvesting, which has just started, the harvesting conditions are not very good. So the beets are very small. They are also there are some effects of the drought and also diseases. That means we internally, from SweetSugar, we do not we believe that the EU estimate on 3.4 is overestimated. We believe that the final, when we will this number will be updated by the EU Commission in the time to come, we believe that there's a risk of revising this number downwards. So our own estimate within SweetSugar Group, we believe that the production this year might not exceed 12 point something, yeah? But it's too early to say so far. We stick to the 13.4, which is the official number from the EU Commission, what we believe. That there's a downward risk on the production estimates. So we move on to page 11, and there we will have a closer look on the sugar prices over the past months. So this is a very important slide. You can see several effects. And I will start maybe with a little bit looking into the historics numbers. And there you can see that after reaching a low at the beginning of sugar marketing year 2024-2025, EU sugar prices recovered modestly until summer of 2025. And then however, exceptionally Federal Growing Conditions last year, led to a much larger than expected crop in renewed market pressure, yeah? And also resulting then at the end to the high stock levels that I've just shown. And as a consequence, we have seen a further decline in sugar prices throughout the summer and into fall of 2025, despite significant reduction in cultivation area. So in other words, even though cultivation area was significantly reduced, giving the good harvesting conditions of last year, the volumes stayed almost the same and thus put, again, pressure on the prices. And now, since the beginning of the current financial year, sugar prices have recovered to some degree, most notably since the summer. Sugar prices have shown a positive trend, which is supported by the impact of exceptionally hot and dry weather during the summer. On crop development and yield expectations. And combined with further reduction in cultivation area, this has provided with additional support to sugar prices. And the most recent spot prices reported by market intelligence agencies stood now at 580x works. That's the blue line as of October 5. But you can also see that the red line, that's the EU price reporting, that's an indicator that's for those who are not so familiar with those numbers. The red line is the older sugar producers in Europe. They have to communicate their sales numbers, prices to the European Commissions, and the European Commissions makes an average on three regions. So here is shown one of the regions. And with three months delay, the red number is the reality, let's say, in the books of the European sugar companies. So and what you can also see on the right-hand side, there is a positive momentum on the spot prices. That's the blue line. But this is not automatically directly reflected or only reflected with some time delay in the red line when it comes to the actual numbers of the sugar producers, because often those contracts are made on a 12-month period. So let's move on to page 12. This is the financial performance of the sugar segment. I will not also comment all the numbers but focus on the most important ones. And you can see after six months of the financial year 2026-2027 in the sugar segment, we were moderately below the previous year's level, when it comes to revenues. That's the number on the right-hand top side, the 1.269 billion euros in revenues. And this decline was mainly driven by lower sugar prices that I've just explained, coming from the past, combined with a reduction in sales volumes. At the same time, now moving to operating EBITDA. You can see that we have an improvement after six months. From a minus 46 million euro to a minus 24 million euro. That's also the number you see on the right-hand side in the middle. And this decline was mainly driven by lower sugar prices sorry, and this improvement was primarily due to a lower production cost resulting from the 2025 campaign. And this has helped to partly offset the impact of the challenging marketing environment. And as drought conditions, negatively affect the crop expectation this year and the harvesting that has just started, the expected utilization of our processing capacities during the 2026 campaign, that means right now, has declined. Leading to higher idle capacity costs in the second quarter of 2026-2027. So we move on to page 30, which is the special product segment. And here you can see also starting with revenues on the right-hand side. You can see that after six months of the current fiscal revenues in the special product segment, moderately increased to 1.131 billion. Compared with a 1.076 billion in the previous year. The improvement was mainly driven by higher sales volumes. Then turning to operating profit EBITDA, you can see that this has improved significantly to 140 million, up from 150 million in the first six months of 2025-2026. And here, overall higher sales volumes and in some areas lower costs more than offset the impact of partially lower prices. I move on to page 14. Here we can find the crop energies segments. So as stated at the beginning, it's developed in crop energy segment was very positive in the first half of this year. Also starting with revenues on the right-hand side, you can see after six months of 2026-2027 fiscal revenues in the crop energy segment were moderately above the level of previous year's six months. As higher renewable ethanol prices more than compensated for slightly lower sales volumes. And this is as also discussed last time, this is linked to the partial shutdown of ENSOs, but which is currently running and producing. Operating EBITDA improved significantly to 68 million. Also the number you find on the right-hand side in the middle. Compared with just 4 million in the first half of the previous year. So this strong improvement was mainly driven by significantly lower net raw material costs and higher prices for renewable ethanol. This having said, we move on to page 15, which is an overview on the starch segment. So same procedure, I will just comment the revenues and operating EBITDA on the right-hand side for the first six months. So starting with revenues, you can see that they slightly declined from 474 million to 456 million. And here, higher sales volumes for corporate together with higher ethanol prices mitigated the impact of lower selling prices for starch and sweetening products. You might be surprised, those are not so 100% familiar with our numbers while I discuss here also ethanol prices. This is linked to the fact that the starch segment is in by AGRANA and within AGRANA, there's ethanol activities are reported within the starch segment. So same was just explained for crop energies. It's partially also right then for the starch segment because here AGRANA benefits from the positive impacts of ethanol prices. So higher sales volumes of our core products together with higher ethanol prices mitigated the impact of lower selling prices for starch and sweetening products. And in particular, the development of sales volumes for native and modified starches were satisfactory. Coming to operating EBITDA, you can see that this number improved significantly compared with the previous year's level. So we moved from 29 million to 36 million euros. And this improvement was mainly driven by higher margins in the ethanol business and further selling prices for our main product aside from ethanol were down as were the raw material costs. So because this is linked to the fact that most of these products follow the trend of sugar prices. So we move on to fruit segment, which is on page 16. Also start same procedure with the numbers on the right-hand side with revenues and operating EBITDA. And you can see that after two quarters, revenues in the fruit segment improved to 894 million. After 858 million in the first half of 2025-2026, and higher volumes and prices for fruit preparations more than offset lower prices for fruit juice concentrates. When it comes to operating EBITDA, this number slightly declined to 83 million. Euro compared to 87 million euro in the previous year's period. And here the development is twofold. Earnings in the fruit preparation business increased driven by a positive performance in the Middle East and Africa and improved holding result in the first time condensation of AGRANA fruit ember. That's what we also explained last time. In contrast, coming then to the concentrates business, here we have lower contribution margins and higher idle capacity cost idle capacity cost. And they led to a significant decline in earnings. And those idle capacity costs are linked to a very bad crop of apple in Poland and Hungary, leading them to lower much lower production and thus idle capacity costs in the fruit juice concentrates division. So we move now on to page 18. And here you can find the further details of the P&L. Also just commenting on the H1 numbers and not individual G2 numbers. So I focus on H1 numbers. And starting with the result from restructuring and special items. Here you can see that this number amounted to a positive 6 million. Compared with a minus 33 in the first half of the previous year's fiscal. And the positive result in the current reporting period was mainly attributable to the crop energy segment. And in contrast, the previous year's figure was mainly impacted by special items in the sugar and special product segments in particular. Those were the restructuring costs for the closure of the sugar plants. One year before. The result from companies concentrated at equity came from the starch segment and improved to a positive 5 million. This is mainly HUNGRANA compared with a minus 8 million in the previous year. Turning to the financial result, it amounted to a minus 67, as you can see in the middle of the blue column. For the first six months. After a minus 70 in the previous year's period. And this includes an increase in this year's interest expense, which was mainly driven by a higher average interest rate around 4.2 compared with a 3.7 a year earlier, with an average net financial deposition of approximately 1.9 billion compared with a 2.0 billion in the previous year. The other financial result improved to from minus 17 in 2025-2026 to a minus 6 in this current six months fiscal. So as a result, earnings before tax amounted to 97 million, compared with a loss before tax of 69 million in the previous year's period. And income tax expense for the first six months amounted to 36 million. Thus, and that's positive, yeah, turning back to positive numbers, net profit for the period consequently amounted to a plus 61 million. Compared with an income tax benefit of 9 million in the previous year. So you can see, and this is really positive. I finally come to earnings per share. Earnings per share in the past six months is 0.09. This is still not satisfactory, but nevertheless, we are very happy that this in the previous year's period, this was in a loss situation. So turning back to positive is positive, yeah. And we will continue to move this number up. This is still not a satisfactory number, but for us, it's also very positive to state that we turned from a loss situation EPS back to positive. I move on on page 20 with the cash flow. As stated at the beginning, cash flow improved significantly to 441 million in 2026-2027. And the improvement in net income contributed to a stronger cash flow performance and in addition, as I stated also last time, we worked thoroughly on reducing working capital and capex spending and so on and all of this helps to on the cash flow perspective. And here from working capital, we generate a cash inflow of 252 million, compared to a 197 million in the corresponding period. Coming to capex, investment in fixed assets reached 182 million. And investment in financial assets amounted to 50 million euro in the first half of 2026. And this is mainly related to AGRANA's equations of 100% stake in Mercato Ember. With a purchase price of 47 million paid to date. So I move on briefly to the balance sheet. On page 22. Here on page 22, you can see the balance sheet as of H1, 31st of August 2026. And as a consequence of the positive cash flow development, just explained, the first half year, net financial debt improved to 160 by 162 million, to a 1.588 billion at the end of August 2026, compared to February 2028. So in looking finally to the equity ratio, here you can see that the equity ratio decreased to 44.5% compared to 31st of August 2025, 12 months back. But increased to compared with the beginning of this fiscal. So I finally come to the outlook on the pages 24, 25. We now expect group revenues to range between 8.3 and 8.7 billion. Yeah, that was just also stated at the beginning of this presentation. So in this compares to our original revenue forecast, which was at 8.1 to 8.5 billion. So we increased the revenues guidance by 200 million. And at the same time, coming to our EBITDA guidance, we narrowed our range to now 400, 540 million euro to 680 million euro. And our first estimate for this year was at 480 million to 600 million. That means we narrowed the range and lifted up the lower part of the range and this raises the midpoint of our guidance from 580 to 610 million euros. Further details, you can see on the graph. For capex, we assume that capex will be reduced again versus the previous year. And then based on a broadly stable capital employed, an expected improvement in earnings, we anticipate a significant increase in return on capital employed in ROCE. And due to the expectation of a lower sugar production, as also already explained in the new sugar marketing year 2026-2027, we now also expect that net financial debt to decrease in the current fiscal. And the equity ratio should roughly stay at the same level. Let me provide you with some more details on the individual segments and their forecast. So on bottom line, you see the group numbers as just explained. I start with the sugar segment. So this is still not satisfactory. We come from a minus 70 million operating EBITDA. And you can see that range is unchanged from minus 60 to a plus 40. That's say to a blue or red or red or black zero. But we cannot avoid or there's still the risk of a loss situation in sugar. So starting with sugar, we expect lower sugar production and lower sales volumes in 2026-2027, which reflects the reduced cultivation area and the reduced harvesting projections, as I just explained. And this means despite lower production costs, the continued overall low sugar price level increasing idle capacity costs are the key factors weighing on earnings. This means we forecast still an EBITDA range of a minus 60 to a plus 40 compared with a minus 70 million euros. So the guidance for sugar has not been changed. In the special product segment, we expect slightly higher sales volumes and a moderate improvement in prices. And as a result, we anticipate a moderate increase in revenues compared with the previous year's 2.2 billion. Based on this development, we also expect operating EBITDA to increase moderately compared to the 266 million euro in 2025-2026. Thirdly, coming to the crop energies segment, here we now expect revenues to increase moderately. So this is new. From the previous year's 793 million, mainly due to higher prices for renewable ethanol and the so far continued production at the Ensos plant. On the earnings side of crop energy segment, we expect a positive operating EBITDA development. Supported by higher ethanol prices and lower net raw material costs, operating EBITDA is expected to increase significantly. Compared to the 71 million one year ahead. In the starch segment, the fourth segment, we expect revenues to remain broadly in line with the previous year's level. Operating profit EBITDA, as you can see, is expected to be moderately above the previous year's level of 69 million, due to efficiency improvements and cost reductions, as well as higher ethanol prices. Last but not least, the food segment. Here following another successful year in 2025-2026, we also expect an overall positive development in 2026-2027. And here we anticipate higher sales volumes and they are to drive a moderate increase in revenues despite slightly lower prices. And overall operating EBITDA, however, is expected to come in at previous year's level of 146 million euro. So before coming to the Q&A section, ladies and gentlemen, we are to about to open the floor for your questions. Let me conclude with some final remarks. As we have shown, as you can see, our business performance in the first two quarters was broadly in line with our expectations. While the sugar segment continues to operate in a challenging marketing environment, the other segments are developing positively with our crop energies and special product segments being good examples. So this is a solid development. We see progress, but in Germany, we tend to see also when you communicate internally, we are not yet out of the woods. Here's an issue within Berg. So there are first positive signs, but we have to continue really all our measures that we have put into place to increase efficiency and cost positions. But there are positive trends. And so this is a solid development and it's reflected in our narrowed operating group EBITDA guidance, which resulted in raising the midpoint. So this having said, thank you very much so far for your attention and we are now looking forward to your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. If you would like to withdraw your question, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable loudspeaker mode while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. And the first question comes from Setu Sharda from Barclays. Please go ahead. I'm taking my question. So I have two questions. The first one is on the sugar. Like, could you provide some color on how the latest sugar contracting down has progressed? And specifically, where you were able to achieve the level of pricing improvement you had anticipated? And what are the key assumptions underpinning the unchanged H2 sugar EBITDA guidance despite what appears to be a more supportive supply-demand backdrop? And my second question is on the gas and energy prices. How should we think about the impact of higher European gas prices on FY27 and FY28 earnings, given existing hedges? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Setu, for your questions. When it comes to sugar, contracting we are broadly in line what we anticipated, yeah? So we have roughly fixed 80% of our contracts. And the price expectations are in line, but I also need to do some expectation management. I mean, we see as we have shown on page 11, we have shown that the spot prices are to increase. And if our assumptions for the European harvesting should materialize, that means that the 13.4 estimate by the European Commission might be overstated, yeah? Which is our base assumptions. Spot prices might react further, but this does not necessarily mean that those spot prices increasing. Yeah? Probably to come. Would be directly reflected in our numbers because we have already contracted our volumes to a large degree, as I said, to 80, 80%. And overall, if I take the entire fiscal, yeah, that means we have now six months actuals and the forecast for the six months to come. Even with the positive price trend in the six months now to come for H2, at the end of this fiscal, we tend to see that our average prices still are below prior year. That means this is a little bit expectation management. We have to be clear. Spot prices move up. And yes, for H2, we see better pricing than in H1. But for the entire two months, 12 months fiscal, 26, 27, we still will be with our sugar prices below prior year. That was maybe on contracting. And the second was on gas and energy prices. Yes, you're fully right. The conflicts in the Middle East are still ongoing and it's very hard to predict and there's day-by-day new news and then revision of news and so we see energy prices moving up and down. There's a high volatility. But on average, energy prices are very high. This is true for gas. This is true for fossil fuel. And we believe this trend to continue. And our sales strategy and because this is not only then the higher energy cost, they also do not only a materialize within direct energy spot acquisitions, but you see the second wave effects on transport cost. You see it on fertilizers. You see it on chemicals, packaging material. And we see this cost increase as to all our competitors and all the other industries, but our strategy for sales is to hand over this cost increases to customers. At the end of the day, we say because our customers, they try the same. So it's tough negotiations on both sides. Purchasing and selling. And the idea for us is to hand over additional energy costs and related costs to final customers. Thanks. Just to follow up, like, how much of the cost is coming from the energy? Like in terms of the percentage of total cost. And like yeah, that's the question. How much of this is hedged actually? Yeah, when it comes to the cost, we do not split directly all our cost position because this is sensitive information. If you take our you can see in our if you take the 12 months numbers of last annual accounts, you can see that the highest cost driver for us is material costs, yeah? And within that energy cost, for sure, are important, but it's raw material costs are more important than that, yeah? And also one trend that you need to keep in mind due to our hedging strategy, we are not year by year affected by spot prices to a large degree because we start four years ahead. Hedging prices, overall, but I'm really very, very broadly on that. Energy roughly, but I cannot disclose details. So roughly 10% of total cost is energy. Thank you very much. I will back in the queue. Then the next question comes from Florent Egonau from City. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thank you. Two questions on my side. Can you repeat the percentage of volumes already contracted in the current contracting period, please? I couldn't hear you. Yeah, it's 80%. But for 80, for the new sugar marketing year. Okay. And why? So typically, you have two contracting periods, one with September, October, which is right now, and one with around November, December, which is a bit later in the year. Why did you contract so much right now when the price of sugar is going up and you expect it continues to go up? Am I misunderstanding? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is normal procedure. I mean, you start contracting as early of beginning of summer or even in spring, you start contracting volumes with our key customers. This is normal procedure. And there have been some technical ideas because we have seen as I also communicated in Q1, we have seen the risk for the harvesting. And so we did also for sure our technical measures for selling. But we are year by year in context with our key customers. You have to take into account logistics and everything. So you would never wait until the very, very last second with all your volumes. So it's a gradual process. And that's what we do year by year, yeah? So this is a normal procedure where we stand as of today. And just to confirm, this is the volume from your H2 and H1, right? Sorry, can you repeat the question? 80% of the volume. This is for the sugar marketing year. Yeah, that is September. The next 12 months. That's for the next 12 months. For the sugar marketing year, which starts 1st of October, 26 until 30th of September, 27. And there's a small additional detail to be mentioned. I mean, main of our sugar goes through our industrial consumers, yeah? That means to the big multinationals in nutrition and food. For sure, we also have retail contracts. And retail contracts, they typically do not follow the sugar marketing year, but the calendar year. So retail contracts, but it's by volume, it's by far less than the industrial contracts. Retail contracts start 1st of January until 31st of December. And so you're right. This can be done at a later stage. Okay. And can you please my second question is on the working capital, which was obviously a big inflow for this year. Can you please explain the underlying drivers, please? Yeah. I mean, there are less volumes. And that's the main effect. But I also look to my colleagues on the working capital management, yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Andreas is speaking. I mean, generally speaking, if you compare it also to the previous year, the we had more improvement in the working capital than the previous year. But the working capital development generally speaking follows the seasonality. And part of that seasonality is that over the summer, the stock levels of our inventories are being sold and no additional stocks will be produced. And therefore, our working capital is decreasing over the summer. And this is also reflected obviously in our net debt position. So the development is in line with our expectation and follows the usual pattern. Is there any factoring or reverse factoring included in that number, or it's a clean one? In the improvement, we do have factoring in as a tool to improve our working capital position, but there were no major changes when it comes to increasing our factoring program over the past six months. Okay. Thank you. And my next question is on the energy electricity. What is the percentage of your hedging on what time horizon, please? Sorry, this is too confidential. For you, as I said, we do hedging. But there's no change in management practice we do since every year. So we have a clear risk management strategy, which is executed let's say month by month, year by year. So there's no change on that. But we do not disclose detailed numbers. This is to competitive sensitive. Okay. But we should assume that a majority of your energy is hedged, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's a fair assumption. But we cannot disclose any more details. Okay. And my last question is on the EU forecast that you expect to be lower than what the expect themselves. That would put the ending stock of sugar in Europe at the lowest level in recent history, right? Yeah. You're right. Below 2 million megaton or whatever. So that's extremely bullish for how bullish is it for the EU sugar price? At what level of stock people start panicking and say, "We don't have enough sugar in the warehouse"? Yeah. As I said, and that's what you can see I go back. This is on page where was it? Was it 10? Yeah, on page 10. Yeah. So the official number is a production expectation for Europe to come at 13.4. That's the official EU number. As I said, as we are much closer to the terrain, we believe this is overestimated. But at the end of the day, this needs to be seen how this all the European sugar producers, they just started harvesting. But as I said, we do see really difficult harvesting conditions. You can imagine the beads are very small. I even heard that if you look into the newspapers, you get news that because I have to only reflect to what is publicly knowledge, you can read from the association that harvesting conditions are difficult, that there are even hectares which cannot be harvested because the beads are too small. And now there is some rain coming in. But if rain would now come in, this only would mean that the beads get a little bit bigger. But sugar content is decreasing. We have the issue of the diseases, yeah? This is particularly true in France. And in southern Germany. But it's not everywhere the same. We see good harvesting conditions or good weather conditions throughout the year had been in, for example, in Belgium also in Poland. In northern Germany and the Scandic. So it's not true everywhere. But there will be and that is also a strength of the Südzucker group that we are in so many regions. So there are some mitigating factors. But there are some regions which are really heavily affected by harvesting conditions. And that's why I believe that the number should be or we believe it's 12 point something. And this can be bullish then for your question was on how bullish we are. This can be bullish on the spot prices. But as I said, that's what's the red line. Contractual prices do not necessarily or not quickly react to that. So it takes some time and the blue line, the spot prices, they give you somehow a temperature. But there are some months until this is seen then in the contractual prices. And as I said, this is typically 12-month contracts. You won't find the higher spot prices than directly reflected in the contractual prices. Not at Südzucker, but also not at our competitors' numbers. Okay. But the question was more about the level of the ending stock, which will be below 2 megaton if we apply that decrease in position. Integration. If this materializes, as I said, if our view on the harvesting conditions would materialize, the ending stocks can be below 2 next year. And how bad is it how bad would it be seen by the industry to be below 2? Because I haven't seen below 2 so far, for the past five, six years. Yeah. I think then we will then Europe would be in an import situation as we have been also in years before. So I mean, and then it depends on the as I said, on the other graph, you have seen that world stock levels are still quite high. So then there will come more imports into Europe. And then the question is the threshold of duty-free imports is roughly 2 million. So far, as you see with 13.4 million, the assumption is 1.5 million by the EU Commission of Imports. If there would be much more than 2 million in imports, then the full duty kicks in, yeah? And this would have another positive effect or upward trend on spot prices in Europe. But it's too early to say, but this is a scenario we need to have in mind. Okay. Thank you very much. That was it for me. Yeah. Then the next question comes from Michael Kuhn from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. One more on sugar. And volumes. Outside Europe, as we also referred to, let's say, world volumes, there were also reports that El Niño might have negative impacts on crops elsewhere in the world. I think I saw a report somewhere that the weather conditions in Brazil also resulted in difficulty in the harvesting period. Could you comment on that? And what do you currently see in terms of volumes in other regions of the world? Yeah. You're fully right. This is something we have not touched so far. Coming to the worldwide situation, and this is what if you look at the world sugar prices, this week, they have rallied because there are new news from El Niño. So there's no nothing especially new about El Niño. That's also what we stated in the last thing. El Niño is in place and El Niño means that the water in the Pacific is much higher than normal. And this leads to a dramatic change in the weather conditions. And the weather conditions changing mean the following: in Brazil, it's getting much more rain. So wetter. And this means that there are news that there is some so-called leftover cane. That means the harvesting conditions in Brazil, they are at the end of their campaign, get more and more difficult. And with the high rainfalls, there might be some acreages of sugar cane which cannot be harvested and then left over to next season. And this heavy rains also impact the logistics from Santos Port because this is open harvest. They can only charge to the boats under good conditions. So this is negatively impacted. This is the situation in Brazil. So that means still Brazil has a good crop, but at the end of this group is more difficult than foreseen due to El Niño. El Niño there's a very high probability of over 90% that this El Niño effect will hold on until the springtime, next year. And this then leads to other regions that it gets much drier. This is particularly true for India and Thailand, yeah? And what we have seen so far because they are in the process of starting their campaign. And in India, for example, there we see 13% less rainfalls. That means it gets much drier. And this affects negatively the availability of producing sugar in India. And the same is true for Thailand. And just remembering this, our Brazil, India, and Thailand, they are amongst the four largest producers of sugar. And this might have an effect on the world prices and so that means we have to be prepared or we are prepared to see that also raw sugar world market prices might increase further on due to this El Niño effect, yeah? And that means also impacts if they were to come to Europe, get more expensive, both from a duty perspective, but also from an underlying world market price perspective. Absolutely. Thank you. Then one on the guidance. If I look at the new midpoint, it would still imply that H2 would be down. I think something like 10%. Are you assuming particular headwinds for the second half of the year? No, this is there's nothing particular. But you are true if you take H2 last year compared to H2 this year, we are heading towards a strong against a strong H2 last year. But there's nothing particular to be mentioned. Understood. And then particularly on special products, were you still guide for a moderate increase? Although H1 was really very strong. Maybe on the intra-segmental drivers in special products and where, let's say, the momentum might slow down in H2 versus H1? There is now there's nothing particular. I mean, no, there's nothing we believe we started well into the first six months and we believe those trends to continue. There's nothing special. But as you see, I wouldn't say that it's an ultra-conservative approach. No, it's our best estimate things to continue positively. But we are not prepared that we see a boom or something like this. That means that's why we have also for H2, it's somehow realistic, conservative, yeah? But there's nothing there's no special danger that we see besides this cost pressure from energy prices and the uncertainty that we still see due to the situation in the Middle East, yeah? Because those negative trends to be continued, yeah? No, that's a fair point. And then last question. On crop energies, and especially answers in the UK, I think there were some temporary support measures that should expire soon. How do you see the situation in the UK playing out? And what are the current discussions with the government on, let's say, a future regulation regime or whatever you might call it? I mean, we benefit in answers. There's a supporting regime with the UK government, which is in place since the beginning of this fiscal. And this is for three years, yeah? And that means our obligation is to keep answers planned in the ready-to-operate mode. And we are asked by the UK government also always for a team of three months to produce or not. So that means it's out of our control whether we produce or not. So far after this stencil period, 25 into the beginning of this year, answers is producing since April 26. And we are still producing and the visibility is quarter by quarter. That means the visibility that we have is until 30 of October. Very hard to say whether there will be an extra continuation of productions, but I believe because it's the decision of the UK government. But what we believe there are good reasons to continue operating because ethanol is needed. It is if you see the intake of ethanol into fuel, all across Europe, this is increasing, yeah? So it is needed. It's a product that is needed. And so there are good arguments to believe that answers will continue production, but it's not our decision. It's the decision of the UK government. And so we have to see the answer situation quarter by quarter whether to produce or not. But personally, I would assume that production would continue. Absolutely. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Then the next question comes from Hartmut Moers from MATELAN Research. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. So I wanted to start with sugar, but as we are just in the topic, let's start with crop energies. The you have up the guidance, the sales guidance for crop energies. Because so far you haven't included answers in your sales guidance. The fact that you now have a three-month visibility doesn't mean you've included that you've included answers sales now for three quarters, or have you included answers sales until the end of the year now in your planning and in your guidance? As said, it is dependent on the UK decision. And now the decision is until end of October. So it's in the forecast within until end of October. Rest to be seen. As I said, there are good arguments to believe that it will continue, but it's not reflected in the forecast because it's beyond our control. Okay. So that means you're planning would go up step by step if the government decides to keep it running? Yep. Okay. Then I've seen there was. But only on revenues. There's no effect on EBITDA. Yeah. That's clear. I've seen that in your special items, you are still at 4 million in crop energies, which basically is the same level as in the first quarter. So you had no change. Could you split that a bit down between answers and the ethyl acetate project? Is it that the two factors cancel each other out at this point in time, or have none occurred in the second quarter? So give us a bit of flesh on the bone in that regard. The positive effect was only timing for this support package because it was signed and then later on compensated. So the positive effect in special items for the support package is really a one-off, yeah? Okay. This is a one-off. But. But the benefits you get, you get on a regular basis? Yeah. But this is reflected in operating profits. So I mean, if we produce the support package means that we are compensated for the operating losses. And if we not produce, we are compensated for the fixed cost. So either way, the effect is zero. And this positive effect in Q1 was only due to timing differences because the compensation for this period ended last year was paid in our new fiscal. So it was an aperiodic income. But besides aperiodic effects, the result is zero from this government support package. Okay. I see. But this implies also that you have no costs or special costs booked from ethyl acetate in the quarter. So meaning everything is running according to normal currently, and but also give us an update on whether the project is standing and when we can expect the ramp-up period and when we can expect first positive contributions from the project. So the project is up and running. And there's no news compared to last time. So we still assume going into operations next fiscal. Okay. Okay. With the planned ramp-up, right? Yeah. With the planned ramp-up. Yeah. Yeah. So the project execution is like according to the plans. There's no news here. So we will start operating next fiscal. Fine. So then let's jump to the sugar segment. I was wondering that the increase in sales in the sugar segment quarter on quarter, so Q1 versus Q2, was basically nonexistent. Whereas in the summer months, you tend to sell more volumes. What was the driver behind that? I mean, generally, I mean, we are volume sold. Our slightly below, yeah? Last year. So the trends are one is always availability. And the second one is if you look, for example, what is interesting to see if you take the Nielsen numbers, of sales categories, you see that there is less consumption, for example, for chocolate as cocoa was quite expensive. And so generally speaking, we had fewer volumes in this and giving now the very weak harvest to come. So there will be on the volume side, there will be no big increase in the quarters to come. So this is still ongoing. Also now giving the low availability of sugar. Okay. Then you have talked about either utilization costs. Which come from the weak harvest. And which counter a bit the partially positive price effect. Could you give a broad number of how much this has impacted the second quarter and what we can expect for the upcoming two quarters? Given that you should roughly know what is to come because you know how the harvest will be? Yeah. I mean, you're fully right. I mean, the idle cost, we are as I said, due to the very difficult harvesting conditions, we will really have a tough campaign. And it means our factories will run with a very, very low capacity utilization. And those idle costs, they are factored into the accounts month by month, yeah? And year to date, this is already a two-digit million euro, yeah? And this will continue. I mean, in the first six months, it's roughly 40 million. And this idle cost to be continued, and they are those idle costs, they are factored into the guidance, yeah? So we will contribute it to the accounts month by month, quarter by quarter. Given the very, very low utilization rate of the plants, yes. Okay. And if you say it's 40 million in the first half. So the first half, yeah? Yeah. But this would mean you couldn't know how the harvest goes in the first quarter. So the predominant part of those 40 million must have come in the second quarter. So we're looking at 40 million on a quarterly basis, meaning another 80 million for the next half year, roughly. No. Another 40. So this 40 is for six months based on the harvesting conditions. If there's no material change in the harvesting, then an additional 40 million would come into the accounts for the next six months. It accrued by month by month. 2020 for the next two quarters, absolutely. Okay. And equally distributed. So we're talking 2020 for the next two quarters, roughly. Okay. Great. And the last one basically is on could you give us also an update on the cost reduction that go against this? I mean, you have your reduction programs. Is there any impact you feel you have felt in the second quarter? And what would be the positive contribution you would expect from the yeah, all the measures you have in there? I mean, you have three or four different programs currently running. What goes against this? Yeah. Good question, Hartmut. And I'm thankful for that because this is really important. I mean, we have put into place a lot of cost-saving initiatives. And this is not nothing we did six months ago that is something we started two years ago. Because we were fully aware starting from this record year '23, '24, we have seen and anticipated that there will be a downward trend in sugar prices, yeah? That was fully clear for us. We know our business. We know the volatility. And we also know the sugar cycles. And that means two years ago, we started these programs because we saw already at that time that there will tough times ahead. And I can tell you that last two years had been tough, yeah? And the programs that we have launched two years ago and I don't it's not in this presentations, but you can find an overview in our investor relations presentations. And there you can see the measures that we have put into place are called Optimum, OptiChain, Digitalization, Pioneer, and. On the next level. So five programs running in parallel. And Optimum, this is about improvement in the production plants, yeah? To increase efficiencies, to have better cost utilization, and everything. And bringing down production costs. The second program, OptiChain, is on logistics, optimizing all logistics flows, inbound and outbound. We have a digitalization program. And also Pioneer, where we use the first AI solutions also to increase efficiency and to reduce costs. And we have the Agrana program, which is on the Agrana side. And we have stated also in the general assembly that those five programs, they also we achieved 150 million in cost savings in the fiscal '25, '26, yeah? And then also in the AG, we announced that the number that we see on cost savings and efficiency gains from those five programs should move up to 300 by fiscal '29, '23. That means out of the 300 for this all of those programs, we already have achieved half of it last fiscal, yeah? And so this continues. And when it comes to breaking this down, we believe that out of the 300 in total, 200 is sugar and 100 is non-sugar. And when it comes to timing for until the end of '26, '27, there should be 100 achieved in sugar. So those programs are executed thoroughly and show really very positive results. But we need to continue to work hard, hard on those measures. So as I said, we are not out of the woods. And those all those measures put into place need to be executed quarter by quarter and to be continued to meet up to the levels that we have given ourselves. Great. Thank you very much. That is from my side. Then the next question comes from Tom Gibney from ASA3. Please go ahead. Hi. Yeah. I guess, given how far you are through your contracting process, this year and also in light of the fact that you've, as you say, you know your market, you've been well aware that production has been heading lower. For this marketing year, what can you give us any sense of how the contract prices for you or for your 80% contracted volumes have developed year on year? I mean, particularly relative to the change we've seen in spot, kind of what sort of changes have you managed to secure? And then I guess, on the other side of that, your agreements with beet farmers have been made quite a bit before this harvest period. What should we be expecting on the kind of average prices paid for a ton of beet? So when it comes to contracting, I already answered this answers, but I can repeat. So what we've done for the upcoming sugar marketing year, we have contracted roughly 80% of our sales. And when it comes to the pricing, we do see an upward trend in pricing for H2. But overall, for the 12 months, to be taken together for fiscal '26, '27, we still see a decrease in pricing. That means the positive price sequence will only be significantly seen or will be seen starting with the new fiscal FEB 27. And when we think about the market. Yeah. Sorry. Yes? When we think about the marketing year rather than the fiscal year, I mean, what sort of can you give us some kind of range of the increase? Is it single digits? Is it sort of low double digits? What kind of increase in contract rates have you managed? Yeah. I cannot answer because this would be signaling we have to be very prudent when it comes to pricing effects. That means if I comment prices, it's only on what let's say coffee or global data or standard improvements are commenting. I cannot give you the numbers of how we contracted and there is positive momentum on the prices, but I cannot for compliance reasons, I even cannot comment on that. No problem. Yeah. Okay. And on the beet side? And on the beet side, we have yearly contracts with our farmers. That means on a yearly basis, we contract the volumes, the hectares to be sold. And the pricing is also always then it's fixed upfront when it comes to a certain table where we declare that given an X cost sales price, then it's deducted a beet price. So this will be the beet pricing or the beets, the number what it needs to be at the end paid for the beets will depend on the final sales numbers that we will have achieved. But the table itself is agreed upon. But the true numbers will only be seen after having sold all the volumes. Understood. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Then the next question comes from Zahir Day from Verition Fund Management. Please go ahead. Hi. My question is really around conversation you're going to have with your rating agencies. And when do you plan to do that given you're seeing positive momentum in your business? And second, last year you tended to change your guidance in December based on the market conditions around sugar. Do you have any plans of doing that again this December if you feel more confident around the recovery around your different business segments? Thank you. Yeah. I mean, when it comes to rating, we have regular update discussions with the rating agencies after having announced the numbers. So this will come now on H1 or Q2 figures. How they will react? I cannot comment. It's their decision. On the rating, what I can state is we have as a sweet sugar board and also all the management teams, we have a full commitment to investment-grade rating here. This is utmost importance for us. We know that we are only a half a notch above in investment grade. So we do all to defend investment-grade rating. That's what you have seen through thorough CAPEX spending. There was no dividend paid last year. So we work on working capital. We work on all those costs and efficiency measures. So we do everything to defend our investment-grade rating. But we also know that our numbers given the rating metrics, how they analyze the numbers is under pressure. And we will continue as we did in the last quarters, full transparency also with the rating agencies explaining our numbers and the measures in place. But at the end, it's their decision when or how they would change their rating view on sweet sugar. But what I can state, there's full commitment from the entire sweet sugar to defend investment-grade rating. And then you asked the guidance in December. We will see. I mean, we do our quarterly closings if there are changes then we underlie the MRR regulations. This is have been fully respected in the past and will be respected in the future. And then we will see at what point of time different view might be made. But it's too early to say whether this will be in December or not. It's for us, it's monthly doing to evaluate both actual figures and forecast figures. So this is Andreas. I assume you were talking about when we will publish our next year guidance. Is that correct? Or was I mistaken? You were talking about asking about next year's guidance? No, this is the pre-guidance that you gave last December. You changed your guidance for and I thought, was that going to be the same trend again this December? Based on the strength in your numbers. As I said, this is a monthly doing. We look into actuals and whether we can stick to our forecast or not. So this is regularly updated. If there are triggering events or new information coming in, that's regular process now. You cannot just put it on a certain month. It's every month to be done. And can I just sneak one more question in? It seems like first half, your sugar, EBITDA was close to break even. And you still have a second half and you've contracted 80% of your pricing. Are you confident that potentially the sugar EBITDA might be positive in the second half? Do you have some visibility around that or is it too early to say? It's too early to say. What I can say and that we stick to the guidance we've made for sugar, that it is between a minus 60 and a plus 40. So this is unchanged. But there's still volatility and at the end, really, we just started with the harvesting. As I said, it's difficult. We need to see how finally this comes out. So we stick to the range given, which is minus 60 to plus 40 for the full year. Great. Thank you. Then the next question comes from Karine Elias from Barclays. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks a lot for taking my question. My question was actually a follow-up to what Sahil's asked about the rating agencies. I think just looking at what their expectations were, it seems that four fiscal 26, 27, you're pretty much in line with what they had. But just thinking through some of your competitors talked about lower inventories helping sugar dynamic for fiscal 27, 28. And understand that you can't share some of the commercial details on pricing, but is it fair to assume that obviously that potentially could provide some rating upgrade potential onto your from an agency's perspective? When would you expect to have those sort of discussions with them? Thank you. I mean, the discussions with them, we have quarterly. To give, we have update call. We have yearly talks and quarterly update calls. To explain the numbers as we do here. And but at the end, as I said, it's their decision. And we know our metrics are under pressure, but I think also generally speaking, they see the entire commitment, which I've just explained from the sweet sugar to investment-grade rating, the measures, the CAPEX measures, working capital measures, and so on. They see our efforts and but at the end, it's their decision. So and I cannot pre-assume whether they will react or not. I can just comment on the process, which is in full transparency and with a full commitment from our side to investment-grade rating. So clear. Thank you. You're welcome. There are no further questions at this time. So I would like to turn the conference back over to Andreas Rothe for any closing remarks. Yeah. Thank you very much, Moritz. And thank you very much, everyone, for joining this call. Of course, we appreciate your participation in the Q&A and your continued interest in sweet sugar. Our next quarterly call will be on January 14th with the presentation of our Q3 figures. Until then, we all wishing you the best and for you and your families and safe and take care. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Goodbye. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Carl's call and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines.