According to available data, more area has been sown with sugar beet in Russia this year than in the previous one, which makes it possible to count on a high harvest.
The Ministry of Agriculture reports that this season the area under sugar beet was about 1,190 hectares. This is about 1.5% more than a year earlier.
The increase in area was mainly noted in the central and southern regions of the country. At the same time, in the Volga region and Altai they even decreased.
At the same time, the final harvest of this crop depends not only and not so much on the sown area, which still did not increase so significantly, but on the condition of the crops and the yield of sugar beet, as well as on its quality, which is expressed in the amount of sugar obtained from one ton of raw materials.
Agricultural producers are taking measures to increase the yield, so some of them expect that it will be higher than the level of the previous year.
As for weather conditions, it is worth recognizing that, in general, they are currently favorable for sugar beet producers.
For example, in the southern regions, the condition of most crops is assessed as excellent. They managed to overcome the difficulties associated with the fact that this season, due to the early spring, there was an early March sowing, and frosts came in April.
Nevertheless, some crops still had to be resown.
As for summer conditions, there was quite mild weather in June, which had a favorable effect on the condition of crops. Now, as always, much will depend on further weather conditions and on how crops will feel in July and August.
The main problem of the southern regions is drought, that is, long periods without rain. If there are few such phenomena this year, this will be the main guarantee of a high beet harvest, experts say.
In other regions, for example, in Voronezh and Belgorod, crops are also doing well. Farmers expect to get up to 60 centners of sugar beet per hectare, which can be considered a fairly good indicator.
Analysts believe that in the best case, if the weather is most favorable to farmers, sugar production this year will amount to about 6.4 million tons.
This is about the same as last year.
But if there is a drought, this indicator will most likely be significantly lower, since the lack of sufficient moisture leads to both a decrease in the harvest volume and a decrease in the sugar content in the beet.
