Russian region plants less sugar beet

Date:04-25-2012


Farmers in Russia’s Krasnodar region finished sugar-beet sowing, planting 118,000 hectares (291,584 acres), or 11 percent less than a year earlier, the country’s Sugar Producers Union said on its website.

The sowing area declined as farmers used technology to increase beet yields by 17 percent and to fit local refining capacities, the union said. Krasnodar plans to harvest 8 million to 8.5 million metric tons of beets in 2012, it said.

The region accounted for about 20 percent of Russia’s sugar-beet crop last year after it harvested 9.3 million tons, according to state statistics office data.

Russia’s total sugar-beet sowing reached 311,200 hectares as of yesterday, about 27 percent of the targeted area, the union said.