Russia, the world's third largest sugar buyer, will slash the import tariff for the commodity by two-thirds from March 1, documents showed on Thursday, ending an uncertainty which had led to a halt in refining. The import tariff will be set at $50 a tonne from March 1 to April 30, down from the current $140, the Customs Union - which includes Kazakhstan and Belarus as well as Russia - said on its Web site, www.tsouz.ru.
Russia has sought the lower levy to curb inflation and compensate a shortfall in the 2010 sugar beet harvest after the worst summer drought in over a century. The decrease in the tariff had originally been expected to be announced by February 15, with analysts attributing the delay to the need to secure approval from Kazakhstan.
The uncertainty over the levy had prompted refiners to virtually halt processing of imported cane raws. Sugar imports are expected to pick up once the reduced tariff takes effect, according to the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKRA), which sees Russia buying some 1.9 million tonnes of foreign sugar this year. The tariff cut comes as Russian officials have called for more measures to battle inflation, which threatens to overshoot the government's full-year target of 6-7 percent. In the first seven weeks of the year, consumer prices have already risen 3.1 percent and inflation is cited as a key concern by voters ahead of December parliamentary polls.
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