Food segment sales decreased 2.3% for Corbion nv over the first nine months of the fiscal year. Within Food, Bakery struggled due to challenges in Corbion executing its bakery channel strategy and customer losses in frozen dough.

Net sales of €495.6 million ($574.1 million) in the Food segment compared to €507.1 million in the first nine months of 2016. EBITDA excluding one-off items was €105.2 million ($121.9 million), down 4.6% from €110.3 million. Also within Food, meat sales increased as the shift toward natural preservatives continued to gain momentum in the United States.

The Food segment is within Corbion’s Biobased Ingredients business, which had nine-month net sales of €662.9 million, down 0.7% from €667.7 million. EBITDA excluding one-off items for Biobased Ingredients was €134.1 million, down 2.5% from €137.6 million.

 Organic sales increased in the third quarter for Biobased Ingredients, said Tjerk de Ruiter, chief executive officer for Amsterdam-based Corbion, when financial results were given Oct. 27.

“We keep our focus on sales recovery in Bakery and expect further gradual improvements to our organic sales growth in Biobased Ingredients,” he said. “Our EBITDA profitability remains well above our target level of 18% despite the higher sugar input costs.”

Companywide Corbion had nine-month net sales of €680.5 million, down 0.7% from €685.2 million. EBITDA excluding one-off items decreased 3.6% to €129.9 million from €134.8 million.