IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

RUSSIAN AGENCIES AGREE ON SEASONAL RAW SUGAR DUTY

Interfax

18/09/2007/ Russian government agencies have agreed on the size of the seasonal import duty on raw sugar.

The document that calls for imposing the duty has passed virtually all stages of approval and only “technical details are left,” Yevgeny Ivanov, the chief analyst at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), told Interfax.

He said the duty would range between $220 and $270 per tonne, depending on prices for raw sugar on the world market. The duty will be $220 if the price in New York is more than 9 cents per pound, but if prices drop below 4.5 cents, the duty will go up to $270, he said.

The duty is to be imposed for six months, from December 1, 2007 to next May 31.

The issue of imposing the duty is to be discussed this week at a meeting of the government commission for protective trade measures.

Raw sugar imports are now regulated by a floating duty tied to prices in New York. But the maximum price in the scale is 9 cents per pound, corresponding to a duty of $140 per tonne, which experts think is not restraining the growth of raw sugar imports.

Russia needs an estimated 6 million tonnes of sugar per year. Raw sugar’s share of the market has been shrinking in recent years as production of sugar beets has grown.

27.09.07

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