Raw sugar import duty to drop to $140/tonne in Oct
MOSCOW. Sept 1 (Interfax) - The import duty on raw sugar will drop to $140 per tonne in October, the Russian sugar producers association Soyuzrossakhar said.
The average market price for raw sugar on the New York Mercantile Exchange for August was 19.22 cents per pound, or $423.73 per tonne. In line with the Customs Union (of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan) single customs rate, that figure corresponds to an import duty of $140/tonne.
Analysts with the Institute for Agrarian Market Studies (IAMS) had earlier predicted that duty rate. They reckoned that reducing the rate would prompt increased raw-sugar shipments to Russia and move the start of the raw-sugar processing season to the fall, namely October. The rate was lowered to $171/tonne for September from $203 in August.
The raw-sugar processing season usually begins after processors have finished working sugar beet.