News
03.02.2010
Ukraine Uses 59% of Sugar Import Quota, Ministry Says
Ukraine used 59 percent of its sugar import quota for this year as of Feb. 1, the Economy Ministry said.
The 2010 quota was set at 267,800 metric tons, the department said on its Web site yesterday. Sugar importers used allowances covering 157,487 tons.
“The government is in talks with different countries and will import as much sugar as needed,” Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn told reporters at a government meeting in Kiev today. Sugar prices soared in Ukraine “without reason,” Danylyshyn said, adding that the state antitrust committee is to investigate the issue and “go to the length of criminal proceedings.”
The Economy Ministry on Sept. 22 estimated the sugar deficit at 300,000 tons in this marketing year, which started on Sept. 1. Deputy Agriculture Minister Ivan Demchak said the shortfall may reach 440,000 tons, the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper reported on Dec. 14.
Ukrainian sugar refineries received 23 percent less sugar beet from farmers in 2009 than in the previous year, the country’s statistics office said last week.
Bloomberg
