Russia: Sugar Semi-annual
FAS/Moscow lowered its forecast of Russia’s sugar beet production in 2014 from the April 2014 forecast by three million metric tons (MMT) to 36 MMT. This is an eight percent decrease from the sugar beet crop in 2013. This decline is largely attributable to lower yields, although planted area increased by one percent to 918,000 hectares. This decrease in supply of sugar beets will result in lower domestic production of white sugar from beets (beet sugar), and therefore FAS/Moscow decreased its forecast of Russia’s beet sugar production to 4.2 MMT, five percent below last year’s level. Given the expected lower domestic production of sugar beets, FAS/Moscow increased the forecast of imports of raw cane sugar. FAS/Moscow forecasts sugar imports to increase to 1.5 MMT in MY 2014/2015, from 1.2 MMT in MY 2013/2014.
