Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
"Ukrtsukor" ("Ukrainian Sugar") worried about upcoming sowing of beet
National association of sugar producers "Ukrtsukor", embracing all sugar refineries of the country, is concerned about preparation of farms and the refineries to the upcoming sowing of sugar beet, Interfax-Ukraina news agency informed.
As Head of the Association Mykola Yarchuk told Wednesday, February 19, a collegium of government's food department, only 490,000 hectares of land have been ready to beet sowing to the date. Besides, he said "none of the refineries has purchased beet seeds, none of them has enough fuel and lubricating materials".
The practice in Ukraine is that sugar refinery plants provide agricultural producers with seeds, fuel and lubricating materials, to secure the future beet crop.
Yarchuk said that low readiness of refineries to the sowing campaign was caused by lack of current assets. According to his information, in 2002, after sales of finished product, the refineries produced a total loss of 300 million hryvnias ($56 million).
"Last year profitability of sugar production in Ukraine had negative value", he stated.
For a few recent years Ukrainian farming businesses have been cutting sown areas under sugar beet, considering this crop unprofitable. According to statistics committee, in 2002 agrarians harvested beet from 764,000 hectares - 10.4 percent less than the year before.