IKAR in Mass Media

Guatemala seen No.2 Russian sugar supplier-analyst

24 сентября 2007 года

MOSCOW, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Russia has granted Guatemala most-favoured nation status, which may allow the Latin American country to become Russia's second-largest supplier of raw sugar after Brazil, a leading analyst said on Tuesday.

The independent Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) published on its Web site, www.ikar.ru , an order by the Federal State Customs Service allowing imports of Guatemalan commodities into Russia without paying a double duty.

"In fact Guatemala, which was the world's fourth-largest sugar exporter last year, may now become second-largest importer of raw sugar to Russia," Yevgeny Ivanov, an analyst with IKAR, told reporters on the fringes of an agricultural conference.

Top sugar buyer Russia currently charges an import tariff of $140 per tonne of raw cane sugar. Those countries that do not enjoy most-favoured nation status must pay double this amount.

Russia has 162 most-favoured nations, including Guatemala.

Industry lobby, the Russian Sugar Producers' Union, is trying to persuade the government to adopt a $220 per tonne seasonal tariff from December 2007 to May 2008 to protect domestic sugar beet growers and refiners from excessive imports.

Ivanov added that a draft resolution on the seasonal tariff pegs its level to New York sugar prices. The $220 per tonne tariff will be effective with the price above 9 cents per lb, and it may rise to $270, should they fall below 4.5 cents.

Russia consumes about 5.8 million tonnes of sugar, refining more than half of it from domestic beets and most of the remainder from imported raws.

Source: Reuters | #sugar | Comments: 0 Views: 79

There are no comments yet. Be the first!

Only authorized users can comment.