PARIS: Sugar beet area and output will increase by 2% in the European Union next season thanks to favourable market conditions and despite delayed sowing due to wet soils, the European Commission said on Friday.

In its Spring short-term outlook, the Commission put the area sown with sugar beet at 1.495 million hectares, and output at 113 million metric tons, up 2.3 million tons year-on-year.

It expected the EU’s sugar beet yield to remain stable this year at 75.7 tons per hectare despite an increased risk of damage from aphids and yellows disease in some EU countries.

For the current 2023/24 season, the Commission estimated EU sugar output at 15.6 million tonnes, up 7% after a sharp decline last season, due mainly to a rise in sugar beet area in Poland, Hungary and Romania and a recovery in yields in Italy, Germany and France. EU sugar exports were expected to surge 77% to a 5-year high of 1.1 million metric tons in 2023/24, buoyed by abundant supplies, which also include large stocks from the previous season.

The rise in sugar supplies would not be fully compensated by a slight rebound in human consumption and larger uses in bioethanol production, the Commission said, forecasting a 200,000 tons rise in sugar ending stocks at 2.3 million tons.

Total imports were forecast to decrease in 2023/24 by 26% to 1.9 million tons, despite a rise in Ukrainian imports.