IKAR in Mass Media

Russia beet sugar lobby cuts output forecast

18 августа 2010 года

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The Russian Sugar Producers union main industry lobby on Monday trimmed its forecast for the country's white sugar output from domestic beets to 3.2-3.3 million tonnes from previously expected 3.2-3.5 million tonnes.

It also estimated that domestic sugar stocks would total 2.3 million tonnes by the end of 2010.

"Therefore, domestic production will cover the market demand until March-April 2011. The start of the raw sugar import season should be expected no earlier than in March of 2011," it said in a statement.

The union also said domestic sugar prices were likely to fall to $800 per tonne in the coming month.

The Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) analysts said earlier on Monday that by the end of last week white sugar prices in Krasnodar had reached $887 per tonne in comparison with $881 per tonne a week before.

Earlier this month, the union cut its forecast for Russia's beet sugar output from earlier expected new record high of 4 million tonnes as a severe drought hit some sugar beet growing regions.

In the statement on Monday, the union said that the development of sugar beets in the key regions was at the 2009 level.

Russia set a previous beet sugar refining record in 2008, when it refined 3.5 million tonnes from that year's harvest. The crop declined to 3.2 million tonnes in 2009, as farmers cut the sown area.

In the last few years, Russia, which used to be the world's top sugar buyer, refined more than half of the white sugar it consumed from domestic beets and most of the remainder it produced from imported cane raws, mainly from Brazil.

IKAR analysts have said that they did not expect big imports of raw sugar at least until the end of 2010, after imports have shrunk after a rise in may due to a lower import tariff.

A senior economist with the International Sugar Organisation, Sergei Gudoshnikov told Reuters Insider Television on Friday the Russians may start buying raw sugar around November.

Source: Reuters | #sugar | Comments: 0 Views: 53

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