Ukraine will harvest nearly 20 percent more sugar beet this year, enough to meet demand, as the country's top processors begin to invest in beet cultivation and acquiring smaller plants, industry analysts said on Tuesday.
Raw sugar imports have stopped in the past few months as a surplus of white sugar and expectations of a large beet crop cap prices, despite a seasonal demand upsurge from ice cream and jam makers.
"Although this is the time of high seasonal demand, prices are not rising as sugar supplies are high and confectioners confirm there is enough sugar in the market," said Svetlana Dryhush, research analyst at Renaissance Capital in Kiev. "Ukraine needs about 2 million tonnes a year of white sugar. If the crop is bad, then we import. If the crop is good, then we don't import," she said.
Ukraine will produce 2.0-2.5 million tonnes of white sugar from beet this year, compared with 1.9 million in 2005, the Ukrainian Sugar Producers' Union, Ukrtsukor, said last month.
UkrAgroConsult, an independent analyst group, has forecast this year's sugar beet crop at 16.79 million tonnes, up from 14.21 million in 2005. It estimated 785,000 hectares had been sown to beet this year compared with 747,000 last year.
Sergey Gudoshnikov, senior economist of the London-based International Sugar Organisation (ISO), said Ukraine was likely to be self-sufficient in sugar due to a big domestic beet crop this year, and could possibly become a marginal net exporter.