News Update on Sugar Beet Harvest and Processing in Russia 2020

Russian Sugar factories start processing beets three enterprises launched in the Krasnodar Territory

The season of sugar beet processing has started in Russia. Korenovsky sugar plant (Krasnodar Territory, part of the“Agrocomplex”them. N. Tkacheva), reports ” Soyuzrossahar“. This season the company plans to process 750 thousand tons of raw materials. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, as of August 5, 61 thousand tons of sugar beet were dug up in the Kuban, the average yield is 435.7 c / ha.

Leading expert of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies ( IKAR) Evgeny Ivanov notes that it is too early to draw even preliminary conclusions on the yield of sugar beet this year. “Now only the Krasnodar Territory has started harvesting and processing, its share in the total volume of Russian sugar production is only 24%. The main producer – Central Black Earth Region – has not yet begun harvesting, “he commented to Agroinvestor“.

According to the first reports on harvesting available at IKAR, the yield in the Krasnodar Territory is higher than in the same period of 2019, but so far only the first fields have been harvested – just over a thousand hectares out of 171 thousand hectares. “At the moment, three plants have been launched in the Kuban: two a day later than in 2019, and one on the same date,” Ivanov clarifies.

Thus, in general, the harvesting and processing are proceeding according to the schedule, and if the weather is favorable, the harvest will end in the traditional time frame and, perhaps, we will approach the record productivity of last year in collecting sugar per hectare, continues Ivanov. It is very important that the beets are processed as quickly as possible after harvest. And if in August-September the schedule of digging and processing of the enterprises will be built in such a way that only as much is removed as the factories are able to immediately process, then, firstly, the losses during storage will decrease, and secondly, the beets remaining in the fields will have time to grow up instead of lying in piles waiting for processing, he says.

However, it should be noted that the situation with the types of sugar beet harvest in the Kuban is not uniform. If the factories in the center of the region have already started up, and the harvest there will be close to the average, then in the north-western and eastern regions the situation is quite bad, says Mikhail Pak, head of the sugar business of the Pokrovsky Concern Group. The holding will launch the plants later than usual. “This year we will start harvesting and processing no earlier than August 10,” he says. – According to our forecasts, the yield will be lower than last year, and significantly. The reasons are a reduction in beet crops, low precipitation since spring, hurricane winds, frosts. As a result of all this, the development of the surviving beets was delayed, and most of the crops had to be replanted. There is still little moisture in our region ”.

Holding ” Prodimex»Plans to be the first to launch its enterprises in the South. In particular, after August 15, the Izobilnensky Sugar Plant should begin accepting beets. The rest of the factories will start work in early September. “According to the forecasts of the bulk of the crops, it is now impossible to say anything – just August will be the decisive month in the formation of the quality of beets,” says Vadim Eryzhensky, deputy general director of Prodimex.

This year, the beet harvest in the Kuban will be significantly lower than in 2019, which means that less sugar will be produced than last season, Pak continues. “In general, in Russia in the 2020/21 season, 5.5-5.7 million tons of sugar will be produced – less than the consumption level,” he estimates. – The carry-overs from last year will allow the market to balance. Sugar prices will rise to a level that allows the industry to operate with a profitability of at least 10-15%. This will be very useful, because we will be able to invest profit in the development of enterprises. Let me remind you that for two seasons in a row we worked with profitability close to zero due to very low sugar prices ”.

Ivanov, on the other hand, notes that as of early August, sugar stocks in Russia are still above the normal level of 2015 (before the onset of a new era of overproduction). “This means that our companies cannot relax and slow down the export rates, which were extremely high last season,” the expert emphasizes.

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