Poor weather has dealt a blow to Russia's aspirations to boost its domestic sugar industry, with the beet harvest set to tumble by 10% this year.
Despite a 2% rise in beet plantings this year, production is set to drop to 26m tonnes, US staff in Moscow said, cutting 3m tonnes from their harvest estimate.
"Late frost in June and heavy drought in July-August in the south of Russia led to the sharp drop in production," the attaches said in a report.
The crop's sugar content has also come in marginally lower than last year's.
With Russia's taste for sugar growing, the officials raised by 400,000 tonnes to 2.80m tonnes their forecast for total sugar imports in the newly-begun 2009-10 marketing year.
Big spending
|
Russia's sugar beet sector, 2009-10
Plantings: 1.05m hectares (+1.9% year on year)
Production: 26.0m tonnes (-10.3%)
Beet sugar output: 3.20m tonnes (-9.9%)
Total sugar imports: 2.80m tonnes (unch)
Year end stocks: 450,000 tonnes (-36%)
Source: USDA attache report |
A Russian farm commission has supported $1.7bn plans to boost to 4.32m tonnes sugar produced from home-grown beet by 2012-13, from 3.50m tonnes last year.
The programme envisages the proportion of Russia's white sugar demand met from domestic beet rising from 60% last year to 73% in 2012, with the country's deputy prime minister, Viktor Zubkov, envisaging an eventual figure of 80%.
The investment budget, which has yet to get government approval, would include loans for refinery renovation, fertilizer subsidies and research spending.
PRINTABLE VERSION
EMAIL TO A FRIEND
RSS FEEDS