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Russia heads for record beet sugar output

30 июля 2007 года

MOSCOW, July 26 (Reuters) - Top sugar buyer Russia may refine a record volume of white sugar from domestic beets of 3.4-3.5 million tonnes this year mainly due to an increase in sown area, a leading analyst said on Thursday.

"The latest test results make us look more optimistically at this year's (beet) sugar output," said Yevgeny Ivanov, sugar analyst with the Independent Institute for Agricultural Market Studies."

"The area has risen and average yields are expected to be no lower than last year," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Russia refined a record 3.3 million tonnes of white sugar from domestic beets last year, which covered more than half of its consumption needs. Ivanov estimates this year's consumption of white sugar in Russia at 5.8 million tonnes.

Russia's third sugar beet test, the season's first for sugar content, showed a level of 10.2 percent, down from 10.3 percent at the corresponding test last year.

Average root weight also declined to 181 grammes from 183 grammes, and the density of plantings fell to 79,000 roots per hectare from 82,000 a year ago.

But the sown area rose to 1.066 million hectares, up 6.2 percent from last year's acreage.

"The best results have been shown in the Kursk region and some other adjacent Central Black Earth regions, the main beet growing areas. In Krasnodar and other southern regions the increase will only offset a decline in yields," Ivanov said.

Sugar beet tests, used as a predictor of crop volumes, are normally carried out every 10 days from July 1 to September, with the next text expected on Aug. 1.

IMPORT VOLUMES UNCLEAR

Ivanov said imports of Russia, the world's No.1 sugar buyer, will depend this year on adoption of a new seasonal tariff which the Russian Sugar Producers Union, the main industry lobby, is trying to persuade the government to adopt.

It has called to set the tariff at $250 per tonne instead of the current $140 from January to May and in December 2008. But no agreement on the tariff has been reached so far between the government departments involved.

"If the tariff is adopted, imports will soar, starting from November. If not, imports will be minimal, but no lower than 60,000 tonnes per month, at least until February," Ivanov said.

He said Russia has never imported less than 30,000 tonnes per month for its own needs. Another 30,000 tonnes of imported raws are refined in Russia and then shipped out to other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Russian raw sugar imports started rising from the end of 2006 on expectations that a high import tariff could be adopted in the spring of 2007, which never happened. But large imports and record domesting refining volumes have created a glut and pushed prices back down.

There have been several short-lived increases of prices this year with the latest starting a week ago, Ivanov said.

Sugar prices rose to $705 per tonne in Moscow on Wednesday from $647 on July 19, and in the southern Krasnodar region they rose to $642 per tonne from $609, he said.

"It appears that this is the result of logistical hiccups, creating a deficit of sugar in some regions. But it looks like prices will go down again, as there is no shortage of sugar and imports are continuing," Ivanov said.

"Into the bargain some refineries in Krasnodar are expected to start processing beets in 5-7 days."

Source: Reuters  |  #sugar   |  Comments: 0   Views: 61

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