Due to the fact that sugar beet sowing may expand in the current season, there is a chance for sugar production to increase compared to the previous year.
Experts estimate that about 6.2-6.8 million tons of sugar may be produced in Russia this season.
At the same time, last season, production amounted to about 6.3 million tons of sugar. That is, there is a chance that production will increase.
As for sugar beet, it is planned to sow about 1.173 million hectares this season instead of 1.169 last season.
This small increase, however, may become an opportunity to increase beet production.
It is emphasized that the area of sowing may mainly increase in the Central Black Earth Region, while other regions, such as Altai and the Volga Region, may even expect a decrease in sowing areas.
An unexpected positive factor for sugar beet may be the difficult situation with grains, experts emphasize.
In particular, we are talking about the fact that many winter crops may not survive the winter due to insufficient snow cover, which can aggravate the impact of winter frosts and spring frosts.
In this case, reseeding remains the only way for farmers to get a harvest from a given field, and sugar beet is one of the most popular crops for reseeding.
In general, an increase in sugar beet production in the foreseeable future is quite likely.
«In principle, it is possible to increase sugar beet crops in our country — there are slightly underutilized sugar factories in Russia, and in their immediate zone — no more than 100 km — the area under agricultural crops can be increased, provided that the fields are properly prepared and crop rotation is not disrupted,» notes leading expert of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) Evgeny Ivanov.
If there is a surplus of sugar, Russia has extensive export opportunities.
However, problems with growing beets this year are also possible.
For example, the high interest rate of the Central Bank makes it very difficult to obtain loans that farmers may need to purchase seeds and fertilizers.
And a winter with little snow can lead to a lack of moisture in the soil, due to which the beet yield may also be in question, since beets are extremely demanding of the presence of soil moisture.
For all these reasons, farmers do not expect a significant increase in sugar production, despite the fact that some local records may be achieved in certain regions.
