Ukrainian producers of refined sugar want to abandon the import of raw sugar under World Trade Organization terms, Kommersant-Ukraine reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter at Ukrtsukor, the country’s sugar industry group.
Ukraine in the next one or two years will be able to satisfy domestic demand for sugar with its own products and manage without imports, President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych has said.
"A program to support the sugar industry in the country will be in effect, and we will try not to import sugar in the next one or two years," he said during the Conversation with the Country television project on Friday.
The output capacity of Belarusian sugar refineries should be increased, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko as he visited the Gorodeya sugar refinery on 23 September.
“We have a system for sugar, a structure, there is space to grow into. This is why raising the output of existing enterprises is the first thing that needs to be done,” said the head of state.
At present there are four sugar refineries in Belarus, namely in Skidel, Zhabinka, Slutsk and Gorodeya. The Belarusian sugar industry has been retooled and operates steadily, processing 26,800 tonnes of sugar beet per day. Since 2004 Belarus has been supplied with domestic sugar. Belarus is the CIS’ third largest sugar manufacturer after Russia and Ukraine. The choice of sugar products has considerably increased. In 2009 Belarus exported nearly 440,000 tonnes of sugar.
There are plans to raise the output of sugar made of sugar beet up to 650,000 tonnes per annum by 2015. To improve the economic effectiveness of the industry, several things have to be addressed. In particular, it is necessary to improve the technological value of sugar beet, its sugar content up to 18% and more, to reduce sugar beet storage and processing time, to ensure a balance between sugar beet procurement and the capacity to process sugar beet.
Alexander Lukashenko got familiar with the state and prospects of the Belarusian sugar industry as well as the manufacturing and economic state of the Gorodeya sugar refinery and prospects of its development. He examined the manufacturing premises and the entire manufacturing cycle.
The Gorodeya sugar refinery mainly offers granulated sugar. It is an ecologically friendly product. The manufacturing process uses no chemical additives. In 2009 the enterprise commissioned a line to manufacture cube sugar. Sugar stick production has been started. In February 2010 the enterprise installed a second cube sugar line with the output capacity up to 14 tonnes per day. It can manufacture sugar with various flavors.
The Gorodeya sugar refinery has designed and tested a new resource-saving technology to process sugar beet and store sugar syrup. The new technology is about 16% cheaper than the conventional one. The enterprise has also designed a new technology to manufacture brown sugar, which preserves valuable qualities of sugar beet.
The enterprise has completed a total retooling. By late 2010 the processing capacity is supposed to reach 8,000 tonnes per day. In the future the processing capacity will be raised up to 10,000 tonnes per day. In 2011-2015 around Br200 billion in investments will be used for this purpose.
In January-July 2010 the enterprise’s profit totaled Br51.5 billion, 210% up on January-July 2009, with the profitability at 21%. Net profit amounted to Br31.4 billion.
In January-August 2010 the Gorodeya sugar refinery exported 32,200 tonnes of sugar to Russia, 17,900 tonnes to Ukraine, 17,700 tonnes to Kazakhstan. Sugar was also exported to other CIS states and Mongolia.
The Belarus President also visited the Eurotarex company to get familiar with the manufacturing of packaging products. Eurotarex makes polymeric sacks to package sugar and other loose goods. Eurotarex products are shipped to Belarusian sugar refineries, flour industry enterprises and agricultural enterprises in Nesvizh District. Import substitution saves $2 million. Eurotarex can make 20 million packaging sacks per annum. In January-July 2010 the profitability of sales stood at 7.3%.
Ukraine is planning to export to Russia 300 thousand tons of sugar on preferential terms, Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk says.
"According to the intergovernmental agreement, after sugar beet is harvested and mutual balances are summed, Russia will consider the possibility of importing 300,000 tons of Ukrainian sugar produced from sugar beets without fee," he said.
Prysiazhniuk also expressed hope that "from this direction, we can break the blockade, and it will be a positive signal for the entire sugar industry."
According to forecasts of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, in the current season Ukraine will produce more than 2 million tons of sugar, while the domestic market consumes 1.6 million tons of sugar a year.
source: blackseagrain.net
The production of sugar from sugar beet of the 2009 harvest in Ukraine this year will be 1.3 million tons for the best, with a demand of 1.9 million tons, says Deputy Minister of Agricultural Policy Yaroslav Hadzalo.
He said that the only chance to compensate for the shortage of sugar is to use the ending stocks of past years' harvests, since it is problematic and unprofitable to buy sugar in big volumes now.
Hadzalo added that sugar issue is No1 in the agro-industrial area, and increase in the production of sugar beet, including with the state support, would give a start to revival of Ukraine's powerful sugar industry.
The production of beet sugar of the 2009 harvest made 1.267 million tons, with Ukraine's domestic annual demand of 2 million tons.
source: blackseagrain.net
Investment of USD 100-150 million is required for the creation of a competitive sugar industry in Ukraine in the long-term perspective, the press service of the Agrarian Chamber of Ukraine reported.
"Back in 2005 the Chamber proposed that the government hold concentration in this area for attraction of two or three strategic investors like international company British Sugar.
Unfortunately, this has not been done so far," ACU President Dmytro Berezovskyi noted.
In his words, unsystematic reduction of capacities has cut the number of sugar refineries from 150 to 60, and the main problems of the branch have not been settled. The Chamber says the country has no state policy to encourage intensive cultivation of sugar beet and effective sugar production. "Under-production of sugar in Ukraine and the world over has boosted its prices 2.5 times on the Ukrainian market. Beside that, ill-considered policy on cane sugar import also played a negative role," Berezovskyi explained.
The Agrarian Chamber of Ukraine predicts that confectionery and bakery products, as well as other goods made with the use of sugar, may get 25-70% more expensive in February-April 2010.
The output of sugar made of the 2009 harvest beet totals 1.267 million tons, with Ukraine's domestic sugar consumption of 2 million tons.
source: blackseagrain
Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has criticized the government for short-sighted policy in agriculture, particularly in the sugar industry.
He said this at a meeting with farm workers on the occasion of their professional day in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"Sugar production is in fact being destroyed" in Ukraine, he said.
According to him, the area under sugar beet crops on 328,000 hectares in Ukraine is now the smallest since 2002. "Should it be like this? When there's a sugar price boom in the world …," Yuschenko wondered.
He also slammed a decline in the number of sugar refineries. He said that a new yield of sugar beets would be processed at 75 sugar refineries, which is three times lower than two years ago.
Moreover, Yuschenko criticized the unjustified imports of farm products to Ukraine.
source: interfax
Leader of the Regions Party Viktor Yanukovych has said that the current situation in the sugar industry should not be tolerated.
"The situation in sugar industry is inadmissible. This field is being gradually destroyed in Ukraine, and it will disappear soon, if the situation continues to develop like this," he told journalists while visiting the Brailev sugar refinery in Vinnytsia region on Wednesday.
Yanukovych said that the number of plants processing sugar beet in Ukraine has fallen significantly in recent times. He said that in Vinnytsia region only seven out of 44 sugar refineries are currently operating, and their profitability is very low.
According to Yanukovych, the sugar deficit in Ukraine is currently 700,000-800,000 tonnes. As Ukraine has sugar shortages, this product will be imported from other countries at a lower price, which will destroy domestic producers, Yanukovych said.
source: interfax
Ukraine's fulfilling its obligations to the World Trade Organization may deal a hard blow to the country's sugar industry, Ukrainian banker and presidential candidate Serhiy Tihipko has said.
Tihipko was commenting on the Agriculture Ministry's statement that nine sugar factories might be closed this year, his press service reported on Friday.
"With the current record high prices for sugar, the government needs to set priorities and focus on supporting profitable sectors of the economy," he said.
World demand for sugar is growing, while the deficit on Ukraine's domestic sugar market is expanding, the politician said.
He also forecast that without government support, expensive Ukrainian sugar would lose out to cheaper cane sugar, 260 tonnes of which Ukraine pledged to import in execution of its obligations to the WTO.
"This will actually bring Ukrainian sugar producers to their knees," Tihipko concluded.
source: kyivpost
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