Carry-over Customs Union sugar stocks will be up 5% at start of new year
MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) - Carry-over sugar inventory in the Customs Union countries - Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus - will start the coming year off at 4.2 million tonnes, 5% more than the 4 million tonnes the Union had at the start of the current year.
This prediction is offered by experts with the Association of Sugar Producers of Countries of the Customs Union.
Sugar production from 2012-harvest sugar beet is expected at 5.3 million tonnes.
The experts, whose estimates are posted on the Russian sugar association Soyuzrossakhar, think that extant sugar stocks are quite enough to meet internal Customs Union needs until July of next year.
But, despite the high level of carry-over sugar, imports of raw sugar in 2013 are expected to remain at the 2012 level of up to 800,000 tonnes, they say. Russia could import as much as 400,000 tonnes, Belarus and Kazakhstan 200,000 tonnes each.
The association's experts predict that sugar prices in the first half of 2013 will be about the same as in the first half of last year.
Russia is the main sugar producer in the Union. The Institute for Agrarian Market Studies (IAMS) forecasts that Russia will have produced 4.8-4.9 million tonnes of sugar this year versus a record 5.04 million tonnes last year.
