Sugarbeet processing has been slowly starting up in Russia in the southern regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol, with 14 factories operating by Monday, the Russian Sugar Producers Union said on its website.
There are a total of 73 factories in Russia.
Since the beginning of the season on Aug. 1, 660,000 mt of sugar beet have been stored, of which 585,000 mt have already been processed.
Sugar output was 64,000 mt, compared with 59,000 mt a year earlier. In the Central region, sugarbeet processing will start on Saturday, the union said.
Dry, hot weather during May and June cut expectations, and some 84,900 hectares were damaged due to the dust storms at the end of May in the Central and Volga regions, and as much as 50,700 ha were re-sown.
According to the Russian Statistics Service the official area planted to beet is now 993,800 ha, 3,800 ha higher than planned in March.
In July the weather improved and there was enough rain across the sugar beet regions.
The estimated beet yields according to some sources could reach 40 mt/ha in the Central and Volga regions, which is 8% higher than in 2014-15.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture, in the Stavropol region, sugar beet yields were 44 mt/ha, which is 19% higher than the average yield in Russia in 2014-15 season.
However, due to a lot of precipitation, the sucrose content in the beets this year is lower.
According to the latest sugar beet tests, as of August 1, the average sucrose content was 13%, compared with 14.6% a year earlier, which was mainly due to the lower readings in the Central region — the sucrose content there was 12.6% compared with 15.5% a year earlier.
Currently, analysts estimates of Russian 2015-16 sugar production are in a range of 4.6 million-4.9 million mt, compared with 4.438 million mt produced in 2014-15.
Platts agricultural analysis unit Kingsman estimates 2015-16 output at 4.73 million mt.
Source: www.hellenicshippingnews.com