Russian Beet Harvest, Sugar Output from Beet Fall on Year

(The Wall Street Journal) – Russia’s beet harvest and sugar production from the newly harvested beet are both significantly lower than last year, according to figures issued Wednesday by the national association of sugar producers, Soyuzrossakhar.

By Oct. 22, Russia had harvested 27.6 million metric tons of beet from 646,700 hectares, or 71.4% of the total area to be harvested, at an average yield of 4.27 tons a hectare. By the same date last year, the beet harvest totaled 30.4 million tons from 823,300 hectares at an average yield of 3.7 tons/ha.

Soyuzrossakhar said Russia had produced 1.83 million tons of refined sugar from domestically harvested beet by Oct. 22, compared with 2.235 million tons over the same period last year.

It said 73 refineries were processing newly harvested beet, compared with 77 a year earlier. So far, the sugar refineries had received 18.3 million tons of beet from farmers, compared with 22.64 million tons a year earlier, and had processed 14.5 million tons compared with 18.56 million tons a year earlier.

In 2012 Russia produced 4.753 million tons of sugar from domestically harvested beet, 5.53% less than the 5.031 million tons produced in 2011.

This year Russian farmers have reduced the beet planted area because of falling demand and increasing costs. This year’s beet planted area is 905,740 hectares compared with 1.122 million in 2012.

Soyuzrossakhar forecast sugar production from beet harvested this year will total 4 million tons, down 15.85% from 2012 and down 20.5% from 2011.