Last updated: 10-07-2026

Cosun's Unlock 30 Strategy: Sustainability, Sugar Prices, and the Push into Hybrid Ingredients

In short: Cosun's Unlock 30 strategy is repositioning the cooperative away from dependency on volatile sugar prices, which fell to €40.45 per tonne in 2025, and toward value-added ingredients like the sugar beet fibre already used in Albert Heijn's hybrid meat range. For hybrid formulators, Cosun's pricing pressure on the sugar side is a direct driver of its investment in the ingredient side.

Cosun is best known to shoppers as a sugar producer, but its 2025 financial results tell a different story: falling sugar prices are pushing the cooperative to diversify into the exact ingredient category — sugar beet fibre for hybrid meat and dairy formulation — that Hybrid Foods Europe attendees are formulating with today.

Why is Cosun diversifying beyond sugar right now?

Cosun's average beet price paid to members fell to €40.45 per tonne in 2025 from €43.82 in 2024, driven by exceptionally low sugar prices and a further expected decline in 2026, creating direct financial pressure to diversify into higher-value, less commodity-exposed product lines. This is not a discretionary sustainability initiative — it is a response to genuine margin pressure in the core sugar business.

Despite the price decline, member growers achieved a record average yield of 91 tonnes of beets per hectare with 17.1% sugar content, meaning the pressure Cosun faces is a market-price problem, not a production problem — which is precisely the kind of pressure that pushes commodity processors toward value-added ingredient diversification.

What is the Unlock 30 strategy, and how does hybrid formulation fit into it?

Unlock 30, launched in early 2025, focuses on accelerated growth of Cosun's value-added ingredient portfolio, structural performance improvement, and reducing the cooperative's dependency on the volatile sugar market — with sugar beet fibre for hybrid meat and dairy formulation as one of the clearest examples of that value-added pivot already in commercial use. Cosun Beet Company's sugar beet fibre is one of the named ingredients in Albert Heijn's hybrid meat and dairy range, alongside field bean protein, celeriac, and butter beans.

This connects Cosun directly to the retail pricing strategies already reshaping Dutch supermarkets — Cosun's ingredient diversification and Albert Heijn's hybrid pricing decisions are, commercially, two ends of the same value chain.

How is Cosun funding this transition, and what does it reveal about cost pressure?

The Dutch government has agreed to contribute up to €105 million across two binding tailor-made agreements to accelerate the future-proofing of Cosun's production facilities, reducing energy consumption and supporting the transition to a sustainable value chain. Government co-investment at this scale signals that Cosun's transition costs are significant enough to require external capital, not something the cooperative could fully self-fund from current sugar margins.

Cosun's CO2 targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, with Scope 1 and 2 emissions already reduced by 12% compared with 2021 — real progress, achieved during the same period the core sugar business faced its steepest price pressure.

What does "sustainability without a price premium" mean for an ingredient supplier?

Cosun's own reporting frames cost efficiency and value creation as inseparable from its sustainability strategy, explicitly stating the cooperative must "stay the course" on cost discipline while investing in sustainability across the value chain — a dual mandate that mirrors what hybrid food brands are also being asked to deliver at retail. This is the ingredient-supplier equivalent of the price-parity pressure retailers like Albert Heijn are applying downstream.

Cosun implemented cost-efficiency measures in 2025 and confirmed additional measures for 2026, given continued market headwinds — a reminder that ingredient suppliers formulating for hybrid food face their own margin discipline, not just the retailers selling the finished product.

How does Cosun's innovation partnership network support hybrid formulation?

Cosun has strengthened collaboration with technology and innovation partners including Revyve and Planetary as part of its realigned Unlock 30 innovation agenda, positioning the cooperative within a wider European ecosystem of protein and ingredient innovation rather than operating in isolation. This partnership approach is consistent with the collaborative model FoodConNext Foundation has observed across the wider hybrid foods value chain — no single ingredient supplier is solving formulation challenges alone.

What should hybrid food formulators take from Cosun's pricing pressure?

Formulators relying on sugar beet-derived ingredients should expect continued investment and innovation from Cosun specifically because of, not despite, the pressure on its core sugar business, since Unlock 30 explicitly prioritises the value-added ingredient portfolio that includes hybrid formulation inputs. Commodity price pressure is, in this case, a reliable predictor of continued ingredient-side investment.

Comparison: Cosun's sugar business versus value-added ingredient strategy

Take-home messages

Commercial:

• Falling sugar prices (€43.82 to €40.45 per tonne, 2024-2025) are a direct financial driver behind Cosun's Unlock 30 diversification strategy, not a discretionary ESG initiative.

• Up to €105 million in Dutch government co-investment signals the scale of capital required for Cosun's sustainability and diversification transition.

• Cosun explicitly frames cost efficiency and sustainability investment as inseparable, mirroring the price-parity pressure retailers apply to hybrid products at shelf level.

• Sugar beet fibre already appears in Albert Heijn's hybrid meat range, directly connecting Cosun's ingredient diversification to retail hybrid pricing strategy.

  
  

Technical:

• Cosun's Unlock 30 strategy prioritises accelerated growth of the value-added ingredient portfolio over commodity sugar volume.

• Record 2025 yields (91 tonnes/hectare, 17.1% sugar content) confirm the pricing pressure is market-driven, not a supply constraint.

• SBTi-validated Scope 1 and 2 emissions reductions of 12% versus 2021 demonstrate measurable progress alongside financial pressure.

• Strengthened partnerships with Revyve and Planetary position Cosun within a wider innovation ecosystem for ingredient development.

  
  

Verdict & next step

Cosun's pricing story is a useful reminder that ingredient suppliers face the same cost-versus-sustainability tension as the retailers and brands they supply — and that the pressure itself is what is accelerating investment in exactly the ingredients hybrid formulators need. Hybrid Foods Europe runs 14–16 September 2026 at Van der Valk Zuidas, Amsterdam, connecting ingredient suppliers navigating this pressure directly with the formulators and retailers building hybrid categories. Register here.

About the author

Gerard Klein Essink is Founder & CEO of FoodConNext Foundation and a thought leader in plant protein, hybrid foods, and the protein transition. Over more than 20 years, he has built an international plant-based foods and proteins community, published numerous industry reports, authored innovation reports on proteins for the Dutch government, advised the Canadian government on its pulse strategy, and produced strategic outlook reports for Pulse Canada and the Australian Grains Research Development Council.

About FoodConNext Foundation

At FoodConNext Foundation, we believe that the future of food lies at the intersection of innovation, sustainability, and global collaboration. Our foundation is dedicated to accelerating the transition toward more resilient and responsible food systems by connecting key stakeholders across the agri-food ecosystem.

Our Mission

FoodConNext Foundation exists to bridge gaps in the global food system — bringing together entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, and investors to co-create solutions that address some of the world's most pressing challenges, including food security, sustainability, and nutrition.