Russia will stop some imports of white sugar from neighbouring Belarus, which it says is refined from raws while purporting to be derived from beet, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said on Tuesday.
"We have information that commercial companies in Belarus are buying 200,000-250,000 tonnes of raw sugar for (refining and further) shipment to Russia," Gordeyev told a news conference.
But Belarussian sugar authorities denied the charges, saying the country did not export cane sugar to Russia.
"We do not sell cane sugar to Russia. We are buying cane sugar for domestic needs in a bid to replace white beet sugar, which we are producing for export to Russia. Almost all our beet sugar is going to Russia," a senior official at Belarus's food committee, Belgospishcheprom, told Reuters.
He said Belarus would be hurt if Russia went ahead with the measures. Russian white sugar imports are liable to a tariff of $340 per tonne. Belarus is allowed to export sugar refined from domestic beet to Russia without incurring the tariff.
Gordeyev said the Agriculture Ministry, jointly with the Sugar Producers' Union, the industry lobby, was preparing proposals aimed at curbing the imports. He did not elaborate.
Russia, one of the world's top raw sugar importers in the past years, refines most of white sugar it consumes from imported cane raws, and only part from domestic beet.
Until 2004 it had regulated imports by quotas, aimed at preventing excessive shipments and to keep local refineries running all year round.
Comments
Comments are closed.