October 30 2003, 17:16

Russia: sugar beet harvest, procurement and processing progress

According to the Chief Computing Centre of Russian Agriculture Ministry, as of October 28 this year Russian farmers harvested sugar beet from 813,790 hectares, which is 87.7 percent of the area sown. The farms collected 18,670,270 tonnes of the roots (as of the same period in 2002 - 13.370 million tonnes) at a yield of 22.94 tonnes per hectare (in 2002 - 21.19 tonnes per hectare).

According to operative information from sugar industry association "Soyuzrossakhar" as of October 29, the country's refinery plants procured 15,416,600 tonnes of sugar beet (as of October 25, 2002 - 10.604 million tonnes), processed 9,344,200 tonnes (in 2002 - 7.338 million tonnes) and produced 1,106,200 tonnes of sugar (in 2002 - 859,000 tonnes).

There are currently 74 refineries in operation out of 86 ones, launched un this season (last year, as of October 25 there were, accordingly, 79 and 80 refineries).