As noted in the Eurasian Sugar Association, this season its production may increase in all EAEU countries by about 4%, up to 8.1 million tons.
Such data are provided by the Union of Sugar Producers of Russia (Soyuzrossakhar).
It is planned that the area under sugar beet crops will be increased, from about 1.36 million hectares to 1.43 million hectares.
If everything goes according to plan, the EAEU will be able to reduce the import of white sugar, and significantly — from 440 thousand tons to 300 thousand, and raw sugar — from 1.56 million tons to 1.45 million.
Is there a problem with the seeds?
For many crops, and sugar beet is no exception, Russia is still heavily dependent on foreign suppliers.
But this season, there shouldn’t be any problems. As noted at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, most farmers bought everything in advance, last fall.
True, the difficulty is the price, which has grown by about 8% for sugar beet, but for sunflower even more: by 50-70%.
To solve this problem, Russia is gradually developing its own selection.
But this process is not fast. For example, over the past year, the share of domestic sugar beet seeds used by farmers increased from 10% to 20%.
At the same time, much attention is paid to increasing the yield of this crop per hectare.
After all, it is precisely this, in parallel with the increase in sown areas, that makes it possible to increase the volume of the harvested crop, and, consequently, the amount of sugar that can be made from it.
How much sugar will be produced in Russia?
As for Russia specifically, this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, it is planned to sow up to 1.042 million hectares of sugar beets.
At the same time, it is planned to produce approximately 6.1 million tons of sugar. This is a rather high level, since it exceeds domestic consumption by 3% and opens up opportunities for export.
«We will feed not only the Russian Federation, we are traditionally present in the markets of the EAEU.
The volume of beet sugar production this year will exceed the volume of consumption — 5.9 million tons and will amount to 6.1 million tons. WITH
a potential is being formed that makes it possible to provide the domestic market and send sugar to the EAEU countries and third countries,” said Andrey Bodin, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Sugar Producers of Russia.
At the same time, IKAR is even more optimistic in its forecasts. As General Director Dmitry Rylko noted, the volume of sugar production this year may reach up to 6.5 million tons.
However, as always, much will depend on weather conditions.
