Sucres et Denrées (Sucden) is a French-based leading trader of soft commodities. Founded in Paris in 1952 by Maurice Varsano and Jacques Roboh, Sucden started as a sugar trading business. The company controls nearly 15 per cent of the world’s sugar market and trades more than five million tonnes of refined and raw sugar annually.
The company’s first major international trade deal was conducted between Maurice and Fidel Castro in the early 1960s when Varsano offered to deliver Cuban sugar to Japan and North Africa. This relationship led to the Amerop Sugar Corporation subsidiary.
The 1970s brought in new products, such as molasses, milk, meat and frozen foods. At the same time, Sucden also began to offer financial and brokerage services. The company added other international ventures in 1984 with Nicaragua and El Salvador and expanded further into trading rice in the Laotian and Vietnamese markets.
After Varsano’s death in 1980, his son, Serge Varsano, took control of the company. Steve reworked the Cuban trade deal and acted as a mediator for Cuba and the Soviet Union to transfer 1.8 million tonnes of sugar in 1988. He later expanded further into cocoa, fertilizer, coffee and petrol.
In 2014, Steve acquired the New York-based Coffee America, followed by the Amsterdam-based Nedcoffee one year later.
- Family name: Varsano family
- Sector: Consumer Products & Retail
- Founded: 1952
- Founders: Maurice Varsano and Jacques Roboh
- Country: France
- Company headquarters: Paris, France
- Chairman: Serge Varsano
- Revenue: US$6.2 billion
- Family ownership: 58%
- Employees: 4,000
- Website: https://www.sucden.com/en/
