IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Russian raw sugar imports seen slowing

Reuters

    MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russian raw cane sugar imports, which have risen since June on the expiration of a high seasonal import tariff, will start slowing down in August with the start of domestic beet processing, analysts said on Friday.

    The Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said in its monthly review that imports by Russia, the world's top raw sugar buyer, were expected to dwindle to 150,000-200,000 tonnes in August from 508,698 tonnes in July and 419,000 in June.

    It said total imports from the start of the year to the end of July were 1.753 million tonnes, down from 2,241 tonnes a year ago.

    On Wednesday, official customs data showed Russia imported 740,200 tonnes of raw sugar in June, up from 339,300 tonnes in January-May 2008 and 54 percent more than the 482,000 tonnes imported in June 2007.

    Russian raw sugar imports totalled 1.08 million tonnes in the first six months of 2008, down from the 1.99 million tonnes imported during the corresponding period of 2007, the Federal

Customs Service said.

    Customs data differ from IKAR's data as the former calculates cargoes cleared by customs, while IKAR's data includes unloaded sugar.

    Russia set a $220 per tonne seasonal import tariff on raw sugar from December 2007 to the end of May 2008, replacing the previous $140 tariff to help protect the domestic industry. The tariff was restored to its previous $140 level from June.     IKAR provided the following data for Russian raw sugar imports in January-July (tonnes):

                    2008         2007

January          165,500      423,492

February          75,410      360,072

March            143,900      344,697

April            230,300      160,471

May              220,163      188,300

June             419,007      477,087

July             508,698      287,351

August   150,000-200,000*     142,849

19.08.08

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