IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

IKAR raises forecast for Russian 2016-17 sugar output by 4 pct

Reuters

MOSCOW, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Russia may produce 5.82 million tonnes of sugar in the 2016-17 marketing year which started on Aug. 1, IKAR agriculture consultancy said on Wednesday, raising its previous estimate by 4 percent.

Russia, which produced 5.2 million tonnes of sugar in the previous season, has been increasing production to become self-sufficient and move away from its reliance on imports in Soviet times.

IKAR, a leading Moscow agriculture consultancy, may raise its estimate further to 5.9 million tonnes if the weather remains favourable for the beet crop, which is yet to be processed into sugar.

Russia has already produced 4.7 million tonnes of sugar from domestic beet this season. Its expected to consume 5.8 million tonnes of sugar in the 2016-17 season as a whole.

Its raw sugar imports will be at a record low this season - at up to 90,000 tonnes, saidIKAR sugar analyst Evgeny Ivanov. It will also import at least 200,000 tonnes of white sugar from Belarus.

This season, the country is also exporting and has already shipped abroad about 70,000 tonnes of sugar since Aug. 1, mainly to Kazakhstan and other neighbours.

For the whole season, its sugar exports will reach up to 150,000 tonnes compared with 8,000 tonnes in the previous season, according to Ivanov's estimate.

"Taking into account what we had in the previous years, this is an unprecedented pace of exports," he said.

Among the factors which restrain Russia's sugar exports, IKAR cited active supplies to Europe from Ukraine and the need to improve Russia's infrastructure.

14.12.16

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