Russia may raise sugar imports

Russia may import more raw sugar in 2005 if it manages to rapidly eliminate excessive stocks accumulated in previous years, an analyst said on Thursday.
"When will Russia appear on the world's markets, seeking volumes comparable to what they used to be? We think that can't be expected this year," Alexei Kirichenko of the Russian Sugar Information (RSI) agency told a sugar conference.
He said that in the first five months of this year Russia managed to reduce by 300,000 tonnes the 900,000 tonnes of sugar stocks held at the beginning of 2003.
"We can reduce substantially the excessive stocks further in the next four to five months, which is realistic," he said.