Poland: Starch Maker PEPEES Posts Wider Parent-Company Loss in H1 2026 on Low Potato Starch Prices
Preliminary results from Łomża-based PEPEES show the parent company swinging to an operating loss in the first half of 2026, which the board attributes mainly to the low market price of potato starch.
PEPEES S.A., one of Poland’s largest potato starch producers, based in Łomża, published preliminary financial results for the first half of 2026 on 18 September in current report no. 19/2026. Final figures will be released in the consolidated half-year report on 25 September 2026.
The numbers
For the parent company, PEPEES S.A. (H1 2025 in brackets):
- revenue: PLN 92.7 million (PLN 94.2 million);
- operating result: a loss of PLN 0.76 million (a profit of PLN 1.74 million);
- net result: a loss of PLN 2.92 million (a loss of PLN 0.83 million).
For the group:
- revenue fell to PLN 124.5 million from PLN 138.8 million;
- operating profit rose to PLN 5.36 million from PLN 4.49 million;
- the net loss was PLN 0.46 million versus PLN 0.37 million.
The board explains that the group’s operating result was significantly affected by a revaluation of fixed assets at the related farm Gospodarstwo Rolne PONARY. An impairment of PLN 10.8 million on land in Roje was reversed because, in the board’s view, the reasons for it no longer exist.
Starch prices hit the core business
At the parent level, the company says the decline in revenue and the weaker operating and net result were driven mainly by “the low market price of potato starch” and an unfavourable cost structure, with the cost of sales rising significantly relative to revenue. In other words, the improvement at group level comes from a one-off accounting item, while the starch business itself lost money.
Polish farm media reported in late August that starch-potato contract prices for the 2026 campaign had fallen by roughly a third compared with 2025, which is consistent with the pressure described by PEPEES.
Why it matters
Europe’s potato starch sector has been squeezed by weak starch prices after the high-price years of 2022–2023. A loss at the operating level of a major Polish processor suggests that the pressure is not being fully passed back to growers through lower contract prices. We will update this story when the full half-year report is published on 25 September.
Photo: Potato starch (illustrative). Onlymyself65536 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sources: PEPEES S.A., current report 19/2026, 18 September 2026; topagrar.pl, 26 August 2026.
