Italy's output of sugar made from local beet is expected to fall by up to 9 percent this year, to 400,000-410,000 tonnes, after a drop of about 20 percent in sown areas, according to preliminary estimates from beet growers' body ANB. "We have just started harvesting, so it is a very early estimate, but I think we will arrive at 400,000-410,000 tonnes of sugar made from locally grown beet this year," ANB's senior technical expert, Emilio Pattaro, told Reuters on Monday.
"Forecasts for sugar content are very good, at about 18 percent in the south and about 16 percent in the north, but there was a big fall in planted areas," Pattaro said in a telephone interview. Last year, Italy's total sugar output amounted to 554,500 tonnes, including 116,000 tonnes produced by Italian farmers abroad under special agreements which are statistically accounted as Italian production, he said. Italy's average sugar content was 14.59 percent in 2010, he said.
Pattaro said it was difficult to make forecasts for a total 2011 sugar output because information about foreign plantings by Italian farmers was yet to come. Sugar beet area in Italy dropped to 49,500-50,000 hectares in 2011 from 62,266 hectares in 2010 hit by bad weather and by competition from higher-priced cereals and oil seeds, according to ANB data. Harvesting started about 15 days ago in the southern Italy where one of the four existing sugar refineries is located, while northern regions are just starting to harvest crops, with final output results expected by mid-October, Pattaro said.