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.