Sugar Will Cost More by Autumn
Ukrainian border guard officials point to an increasing number of attempts to smuggle sugar from Russia. Sixty such attempts, totaling UAH 183,300, were registered in the southeastern sector in May alone, reports Interfax Ukraine.
Sugar has long been considered one of Ukraine’s strategic export commodities. At present, it is imported due to a sharp price increase. Among the reasons experts point to reduced sugar beet plantations and poorer harvest yields. The Day’s Mykhailo VASYLEVSKY reports from Khmelnytsky oblast that sown area and yields have dropped twofold compared to the previous year.
“Sugar prices will continue to increase until the fall,” predicts Mykola YARCHUK, director general of the Khmelnytstsukor Association, “because there is a production decline. Sugar refineries lack supplies. While 113,000 hectares of sugar beets were harvested in 1995, it was 62,000 last year. And the harvest yields have halved. No one knows the total area of sugar sown this year, but the acreage is definitely unimpressive. In addition, the cost of diesel fuel, fertilizer, and pesticides is mounting, meaning that raw sugar will be more expensive.” Mr. Yarchuk is not sure that all 17 sugar refineries in the region will be functioning when the new season begins. Two were idle last year.
In Cherkasy oblast, the situation is very much the same. In 1999, there were 89,000 hectares of sugar planted, and 75,000 had survived by harvest time, reports The Day’s Yevhen BRUSLYNOVSKY. 14,000 hectares withered for various reasons and the harvest yield proved miserable: 144.5 centners per hectare, with the sugar beet plantations totaling 1,089,000 tons. Anatoly BEZVYNNY partially attributes such “achievements” to the extremely adverse weather conditions last year; in some fields the drought caused the sugar beets to defoliate. This year sugar beet sown area is smaller by almost 20%. About 73,000 ha were sown and about 12,000 ha have perished, leaving 61,000 ha to be harvested. Even though harvest forecasts are somewhat more optimistic (200 c/ha), it is still miserable compared to Soviet times (an average of 300 c/ha). What is most alarming, however, is the reduction of sown area. If this continues (dropping 20% annually) Ukraine’s major sugar beet region will have nothing planted four years from now. The local sugar industry is on the verge of collapse; unless the state comes to its rescue it will become extinct in Cherkasy oblast.
The Day asked Valery KRAVCHENKO, president of the Ukrintertsukor Ukrainian-Austrian-German joint venture, to comment on the situation.
“Considering this year’s weather conditions, the sugar beet crop has been re-sown three times. Harvest yields cannot be any higher, because pesticides are not broadly applied. Besides, technical specifications are not duly observed and there is a shortage of mineral fertilizer. The land is not worked on time. At present, sugar prime cost at the Ukrainian refineries ranges between $480 and $530 per ton. If they trade at a loss the average cost will be $400, according to the exchange rate then in effect (and the rate will be 6 hryvnias and change), meaning 3-3.50 hryvnias per kilo of sugar. In fact, this is now considered normal price. There is an active expansion of Russian and Belarusian sugar on the Ukrainian market. And it is basically being smuggled into Ukraine, but the prime cost in Russia and Belarus is 110, 210 or 230 dollars a ton. In Ukraine it is 480-530 dollars. So sugar is imported, and people are making good money.
