News
11.01.2013
Ukraine may do without cane sugar in 2013
After two years of imports of raw sugar, 2012 has become the first year after Ukraine's accession to the WTO, when the quota for imports at reduced 2-percent tariff was not used. Balance calculations show that in 2013 sugar beet industry in Ukraine once again will be able to provide 100% of domestic demand for sugar. This was stated by UCAB advisor on agricultural markets Taras Vysotskyi.
2011/12 marketing year has really and truly become a turning point in the history of the sugar industry in Ukraine: the maximum in the last five years volume of beet sugar (2.33 million tons) was produced; the maximum for the last decade, volume of beet sugar from Ukraine (164 thousand tons) was exported; the imported volume of beet sugar was minimal (10 thousand tons); and virtually there were no imports of raw sugar (5.6 thousand tons).
"The production of 2.2 million tons of beet sugar in 2012/13 MY guarantees, even in case of the increase in sugar exports from Ukraine in the current year by 50% (compared to the previous one) up to 250 thousand tons, full cover of the domestic demand and carry overstocks to the amount of 500 thousand tons, which is more than enough to guarantee "sugar food security" in 2013/14 MY." - says UCAB advisor on agricultural markets Taras Vysotskyi. At the same time, the expert considers tangible risk factor which lies in low sale prices for sugar in the domestic market, which significantly reduces the incentives for sugar beet production in 2013.
According to calculations made by UCAB, given the average yield and sugar content in the past five years, farmers should sow with sugar beet 450 thousand ha to meet fully the domestic consumption. If the yield of sugar beet will continue to grow rapidly as in the past two years, it will be enough to sow 350 ha to produce the required 1.8 million tons of sugar.
Information note: in 2012 about 466 thousand ha of sugar beets were sown and 454 thousand ha of sugar beets were harvested; gross sugar beet harvest totaled to 18.3 million tons with an average yield of 402 dt/ha.
