IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Analyst says Russia's Jan-Apr raw sugar imports up 20.6% on yr

Prime-Tass

MOSCOW, May 5 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's imports of raw sugar amounted to 1.14 million tonnes in January-April, up 20.6% against the same period of 2005, Evgeny Ivanov, an analyst with Russia's Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), said Friday.

In April, imports amounted to 357,000 tonnes, compared with 390,000 tonnes in April of last year, Ivanov said. He estimated Russia's raw sugar imports to be above 300,000 tonnes per month in the coming few months.

"The size of imports will depend on the world market situation. If prices decline, we can see a considerable increase. For example, imports hit 637,000 tonnes in June of 2005," Ivanov said.

But demand on the Russian domestic market remains sluggish because wholesalers bought big volumes of white sugar during panic buying in February. It was provoked at the time by rising world prices and relatively small imports of raw sugar in January and February.

Last year, Russia's raw sugar amounted to 2.89 million tonnes, up 12.1% on the year.

03.11.06

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