The reason for this is the low sugar content of sugar beets, which was the result of unfavorable weather conditions.
As of September 9, in Russia, sugar beets were dug out on an area of 105 thousand hectares.
About half (47.7 thousand hectares) were harvested in the Krasnodar Territory, which became the first Russian region to start harvesting beets.
Currently, 4.1 million tons of this crop have been harvested in Russia.
At the same time, the yield per hectare this year is higher than last year: 460 centners per hectare against 389. But the big problem is the low sugar content.
The sugar yield from beets of the current crop is only 11%. While last year it was 13%, and the year before last — all 14%.
“The sugar content of beets in the South is low this season. Sugar factories are turning into «crumpets», — complains the leading expert of the Institute of Agricultural Market Studies Yevgeny Ivanov.
This leads to the fact that 14 sugar factories in the Krasnodar Territory, which in total produce 25% of all Russian sugar, operate at very low capacity this season.
For example, by September 10, only 260 thousand tons of sugar were produced in the Kuban. Moreover, in 2020 this figure was 314 thousand tons, and in 2019 — 524 thousand tons.
What is the reason for the low sugar content of beets?
The main factor is the weather, which did not please the farmers this season.
The main problem was the lingering spring rains , which fell in the south at exactly the time when it was necessary to sow beets. This led to the planting being started 2-4 weeks later than the plan. Consequently, the beets did not have much time to ripen.
In the summer, in June-July, control measurements were carried out, which, as a rule, showed that the beets were making up for lost time.
However, when the harvesting began, it became clear that technical maturity was still a long way off. The maximum value of sugar content (digestion) is only 13-14%.
This leads to the fact that some businesses are still waiting and postponing cleaning.
“We hope that in the coming weeks the beets will ripen and gain digestion at least up to the average annual level of 17-18%, which will make it possible to produce a sufficient amount of sugar,” says Mikhail Pak, Development Director of the Pokrovsky Concern.
But despite the fact that the agrarians are still optimistic, experts already have serious concerns that this year it will be possible to produce 6 million tons of sugar — the level that the Ministry of Agriculture declared as the target.
At the same time, IKAR believes that the maximum value of sugar production this year will be no more than 5.2 million tons.
