Russia may export up to 1.1 mln tns of sugar in 2019–2020 ag year

MOSCOW, Feb 7 (PRIME) -- Russia may export up to 1.1 million tonnes of sugar in the 2019–2020 agricultural year, which started on July 1, 2019 and will end on June 30, 2020, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, or IKAR, said in a presentation on Friday.

“Russian sugar exports in the 2019–2020 agricultural year may rise to a record of 900,000–1.1 million tonnes. The exports grew rapidly from 11,000 tonnes in January to 150,000 tonnes in December 2019 – a preliminary estimate,” the presentation read.

IKAR General Director Dmitry Rylko said that sugar exports in the current agricultural year amounted to 500,000 tonnes as of Friday, which is good, but it is necessary to produce additional support to the exports and to find new export markets. The expected production of sugar in Russia in 2019 is about 7.7 million tonnes, while domestic consumption is about 6 million tonnes, he said.

“We need new strategic measures, new investment, one of which should be container transportation throughout the world. But we need infrastructure for that, which is a problem now. This is a problem not only for sugar, but for many other products starting with flour. Our container costs by about 50–100% more than a container in Turkey, which undermines our competitiveness,” Rylko said.

“We are accumulating stocks, and we may send them to the global market only if we slash the price significantly. But there is no obvious market that would welcome our white sugar, unlike the situation with our grain,” he said.

End