IKAR in Mass Media

Russia's sugar production to rise 8 pct this year

28 июня 2016 года

MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - Russia's sugar production will increase to 5.6 million tonnes in 2016, from 5.2 million tonnes last year, thanks to a larger sowing area and favourable weather, Evgeny Ivanov, a sugar analyst at IKAR, forecast on Tuesday.

Russia has been seeking to ramp up sugar production in recent years as it aims to become self-sufficient following the Soviet era's heavy reliance on imports from Cold War ally Cuba.

IKAR, a leading agriculture consultancy in Moscow, sees Russia's domestic consumption of sugar rising this year by 50,000 tonnes to 5.85 million tonnes due to higher demand in Crimea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

Growth in consumption will also be driven by more Russians spending holidays at home rather than abroad as their living standards decline, Ivanov told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Russia's economy has been hit by lower oil prices and Western sanctions imposed for the last two years in response to Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis.

Russia was the world's top raw sugar importer a decade ago but has imported less in recent years as domestic production rose. IKAR expects the country's imports of raw sugar to fall to 100,000 tonnes during the next marketing year ending July 2017, from an expected 238,000 tonnes in the current marketing year.

Imports of white sugar are forecast at 280,000 tonnes in 2016/17, down 9,000 tonnes from 2015/16, Ivanov said, while exports of white sugar may rise to 15,000-20,000 tonnes from 8,000-10,000 tonnes this year.

The beet crop's yield this year is unlikely to reach last year's record, Ivanov said.

Source: Reuters | #sugar | Comments: 0 Views: 122

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