KYIV: Ukraine’s major white sugar producer, Astarta, has completed the 2021 sugar beet processing, making 266,000 tonnes of white sugar, the company said on Thursday.

Astarta said in a statement it had processed 1.8 million tonnes of sugar beet, harvested from 33,400 hectares (83,000 acres), or almost 15% of the country’s overall beet sowing area.

The company harvested about 1.5 million tonnes of sugar beet in 2020, refining 226,000 tonnes of white sugar and keeping a market share of 22%.

Ukraine has produced 1.28 million tonnes of sugar from 9 million tonnes of sugar beet as of Dec. 22. The country made 1 million tonnes of white sugar from the 2020 beet harvest.