IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Russia may export 200,000 T sugar in 2011-12-minister

Reuters

MOSCOW, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Russia may export up to 200,000 tonnes of white beet sugar between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012, Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said on Friday.

"Exports have already reached 50,000 tonnes. The export forecast is up to 200,000 tonnes," she said in a statement.

Skrynnik did not say who the buyers of the Russian sugar might be.

Russia, formerly the third-largest sugar importer, officially expects record output of beet sugar this year of 5 million tonnes. Analysts believe the country's refining capacities will not permit output of more than 4.3 million tonnes.

Last week, European trade sources said a Russian producer had offered around 40,000 tonnes of white sugar, believed to be the first offer of the Russian sweetener for export by sea in at least a decade.

Andrei Bodin, head of the Russian Sugar Producers' Union, the industry lobby group, told Reuters that Russia's infrastructure is not prepared for shipping sugar out by sea.

"In fact, our sugar, at $590 per tonne in Krasnodar, has an advantage over European sugar. But we are shipping it by rail. To Central Asia mainly (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan). Some 10,000-15,000 tonnes a month."

Eugeny Ivanov, sugar market analyst with the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), has said that Russia, which normally exports 10,000-15,000 tonnes of sugar a month, could start shipping some sugar to Africa, the European Union and China.

10.10.11

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