Moreover, it started significantly earlier than last year.
According to information provided by the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, as of March 27, 75% of the planned sugar beet area had already been sown in the Krasnodar Territory.
The sowing started on March 13th. This is much earlier than it was as of 2023. Last season, sowing started on March 15, and 75% of the planned areas were sown only on April 6.
In general, as of March 27, 150 thousand hectares were already sown with sugar beets in the Krasnodar Territory, which is noticeably more than a year ago on the same date (90 thousand hectares).
This crop is also being sown in neighboring regions. Moreover, there we can also observe ahead of schedule.
For example, in the Rostov region, by March 26, about 5 thousand hectares of sugar beets were sown, this is about 25% of the plan.
Most likely, other regions of the Russian Federation will begin sowing work in the near future, since the weather is favorable for this.
At the same time, experts warn that it is very important to choose the optimal moment for sowing, since sowing too early or too late creates significant risks for the future harvest.
Local authorities help producers with seeds
This year, the authorities of the Krasnodar region decided to further support agricultural producers by allocating them funds to compensate for the cost of purchasing seeds.
It is emphasized that we are talking about domestically produced sugar beet seeds, the transition to which is part of a large program of import substitution in agriculture.
What are your plans for sugar beet production?
This year, the area under this crop was increased by 4% and amounted to 1.06 million tons.
At the same time, last year in the Russian Federation it was possible to harvest about 53 million tons of sugar beets. Experts plan that this year this figure will be at least at the same level.
As for the yield, last year it was about 505 centners per hectare. It is planned that this year’s yield should not be lower than last year’s.
Meanwhile, the country is actively producing sugar from accumulated raw materials (beet syrup and molasses).
From the beginning of the year until March 25, about 14 thousand tons of sugar were produced from this raw material.
In general, it is planned that this season Russia will produce about 6.8 million tons of sugar.
It should be noted that this is higher than the level of Russians’ own consumption, and therefore creates good opportunities for exports.
