IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Russia lobby proposes keeping raw sugar duty in Nov

Reuters

MOSCOW, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The Russian Sugar Producers Union, a powerful industry lobby, on Wednesday proposed that the Economy Ministry keep the country's raw cane sugar import tariff at $140 per tonne in November, unchanged for the last 13 months.

Under the Russian tariff calculation scheme, the rate is set by the Economy Ministry each month and is pegged to the average New York futures price for the three preceding months.

The current rate is the lowest, and analysts have said it will stay unchanged until the end of the year.

Russia refined over 3 million tonnes of white sugar from imported raws last year, up from 2.59 million in 2004. This year the country expects record beet sugar output of 3 million tonnes.

Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said on Tuesday that a record beet crop would allow Russia to produce about 60 percent of the sugar it consumes this year and to cut raw sugar imports.

Yevgeny Ivanov, an analyst with the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), has estimated Russia's raw sugar imports this year would fall to about 2.3 million tonnes from 2.9 million.

06.10.06

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