Russia Raw-Sugar Imports Dropped 82% This Year Through Aug. 22

(Businessweek) – Russia’s raw-sugar imports plunged 82 percent in the period from Jan. 1 through Aug. 22 compared with a year earlier after output surged and it exported the sweetener for the first time.

Imports dropped to 423,100 metric tons from 2.33 million tons in the year-earlier period, according to data published today on the Agriculture Ministry’s website.

Domestic output of refined sugar reached a record 5.1 million tons in the past season, letting the country export more than 300,000 tons of its own sweetener for the first time.

Sugar output reached 793,500 tons in January through Aug. 8, down from 2.3 million tons a year earlier, the ministry data showed. The volumes included 368,000 tons of the sweetener made from domestic sugar-beets, up from 61,400 tons a year earlier. The remaining 425,500 tons were made from imported raw-sugar, down from 2.23 million tons a year earlier, the ministry said.

The ministry on Aug. 15 forecast total national output of the sweetener for the one-year season that ends July 31, 2013, at 4.7 million to 5.2 million tons, with potential exports of 350,000 tons.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at  msysoyeva@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at  ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net