Ukraine's sugar refineries have almost completed the 2006 sugar beet processing, producing 2.406 million tonnes of white sugar from 19.82 million of beet so far, the Ukrtsukor sugar union said on Thursday.
Ukraine started sugar beet processing in late August. Ukraine had produced 1.847 million tonnes of white sugar from 14.05 million tonnes of beet by the same date last year.
Ukrtsukor said last month Ukraine's white beet sugar output might reach 2.55 million tonnes in 2006, exceeding the previous government forecast of 2.5 million tonnes. This month, the Agriculture Ministry increased by 17 percent its white sugar output forecast to 2.5 million tonnes in 2006 from a previous estimate of 2.135 million due to a higher crop.