Südzucker AG

Südzucker, based in Mannheim, is Europe's largest sugar producer and a diversified food group, also making starch, bioethanol, fruit preparations and other ingredients. Its sugar business is famously cyclical, moving with harvests, regulation and volatile sugar prices that can swing profits dramatically. Südzucker ties its dividend to profits, so the payout has swung from generous when sugar prices are high to sharply lower when they fall, as it did recently, leaving a low and variable score. This is a food-and-agriculture cyclical whose income depends heavily on the sugar market.