Ukraine may reduce its area sown for sugar beet in 2012 by 8-16 percent due to white beet sugar overproduction in 2011, Kommersant-Ukraine daily quoted an industry official as saying on Monday. The head of Ukrainian sugar producers' union Ukrtsukor Mykola Yarchuk said the ex-Soviet republic produced about 2.33 million tonnes of white sugar from sugar beet while domestic consumption would not exceed 2 million.
Yarchuk said Ukraine's area under sugar beet could shrink to 450,000-500,000 hectares in 2012 from 540,000 in 2011. Ukraine, which consumes up to 1.9 million tonnes of sugar per year, used to produce 5 million tonnes in Soviet times but has since cut production as sugar made from beet could not compete with much cheaper sugar produced from cane.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.