Ministry: Russia’s sugar reserves enough to last till Feb 2021

MOSCOW, Mar 20 (PRIME) – Russia’s commercial sugar reserves will cover domestic demand until February 2021, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

“The amount of sugar produced in the current season exceeds consumption by 1.7 million tonnes excluding accumulated reserves. Commercial reserves of sugar as of the beginning of March 2020 were estimated at 5.7 million tonnes, which is enough to cover the domestic market until February 2021 taking into account current demand,” the statement read.

Sugar accounts only for 1.8% of the cost of the minimum food basket in January 2020, or about 74 rubles per month. The union of Russia’s sugar producers says that the Russian sugar market is stable as there are no disruptions of supplies or deficit of the products, the ministry said.

The union said Russia produced 7.55 million tonnes of beetroot sugar in the 2019–2020 season. Sugar prices plummeted by 43% in 2019 to their lowest for seven years due to high domestic commercial reserves, low prices at foreign markets, and the lack of the possibility to store sugar for long, the ministry said.

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