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Our businesses work to reduce water consumption, maximise reuse, and return treated water safely to the environment.
Solar irrigation project, Azucarera, Spain
Our businesses aim to reduce the amount of water they abstract for their operations, reuse water as much as possible, and return treated waste water to nature after ensuring it meets or exceeds local and national water regulations and standards. In line with our devolved business model, our businesses set and manage appropriate plans and commitments to achieve these aims.
In 2025, businesses across the Group collectively abstracted 808 million m3of water for use in their own operations, an 8% decrease compared with last year, due to lower production volumes in Sugar as well as water efficiency efforts across several businesses. Our African sugar businesses accounted for 97% of this total, with the majority of the water used for sugar cane irrigation. Those businesses are actively working to reduce their water footprint, with innovative irrigation pilot projects underway.
Water is used carefully and extensively throughout the sugar manufacturing operation, from the processing stage where the sugar is extracted and refined, to generating steam in the boilers, through to cleaning of equipment. A significant portion of the water abstracted across our businesses is used for crop irrigation by the sugar cane sites in our African operations. Those businesses are working to reduce their water footprint, with innovative irrigation pilot projects underway.
Of the water used by our businesses, 97% comes from surface water, such as rivers, lakes and reservoirs. The remaining water comes from ground water and third party sources.
In 2025, across the Group, 25% of the water abstracted was reused before being returned to the environment, up from 24% in the previous year. This is both a more cost and resource efficient way of managing water. Our sites reuse the water for irrigation, land spreading, cleaning vehicles and machinery, and horticultural purposes. The businesses, in particular AB Mauri and ABF Sugar, are assessing new ways of reusing water within their manufacturing sites, aiming to reduce the amount of water abstracted and enhance operational efficiency.
To identify and manage potential risks to our operations in areas facing water scarcity, we carried out a high-level water risk assessment in 2024 for our Group operations using internationally recognised methodologies to identify sites operating in water-stressed areas. We provide a more detailed picture of water-stress risk in our CDP submission.
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABF | 858 | 791 | 859 | 880 | 808 |
| Retail | Grocery | Ingredients | Sugar | Agriculture | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| million m³ | 1 | 5 | 15 | 787 | 0.2 |
Our businesses’ sites return as much water as possible to the environment by treating the waste water on-site or by using external treatment plants.
Water treatment is a key topic for AB Mauri. Since 2010, the business has invested $150m in wastewater treatment. Many of its production facilities have complex on-site effluent treatment plants that include biological processes, evaporators and reverse osmosis membrane systems that can produce reusable water and useful co-products. The selection of technologies addresses the local aquatic sensitivities and water quality objectives. At a minimum, sites design their treatment systems to comply with any applicable permits and to not disrupt any downstream municipal processes.
Water is an essential input for clothing and food production. It is used throughout the value chains across our businesses, in our operations, by independent farmers and in suppliers’ facilities. Ensuring efficient water use in agriculture has become increasingly crucial, especially under changing climate conditions.
Some of the farm management standards supported by our businesses incorporate water management strategies which aim to address this challenge. For instance, Westmill aims to promote the standards of the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) Standard, the Primark Cotton Project trains farmers to reduce water use, and ABF Sugar, through the use of the SAI Platform FSA 3.0 tool, works closely with its growers to enhance water efficiency.
Primark’s approach to water stewardship aims to enhance water management practices, reduce product water footprints, and mitigate adverse effects on hydrological systems, ecosystems and human health. The approach includes mapping basin-level risks and evaluating operational water dependencies to identify suppliers and basins most vulnerable to water-related challenges.
* Numbers prior to 2025 have been restated to reflect the disposal of AB Sugar China, disposed of in 2024. The adjustment ensures comparability and accuracy in reporting the groups continuing operations.
