Ukraine's export potential 470,000 t of sugar in 2011/12 agricultural year, says Ukrtsukor

Kyiv, January 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrtsukor national association of sugar producers of Ukraine, which unites Ukrainian sugar refineries, has assessed the export potential of the country for the current agricultural year (September 2011 – August 2012) at 470,000 tonnes of beet sugar.

"The balance sheet of sugar has a certain reserve today. We have almost 470,000 tonnes [of sugar] as export potential," Ukrtsukor Board Chairman Mykola Yarchuk said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Yarchuk also said that Ukraine has exported almost 6,000 tonnes of beet sugar to Central Asia and Europe since the start of the current agricultural year.

He added that talks on the export of Ukrainian sugar to foreign markets continue.

"The [talks] concern 100,000-200,000 tonnes of sugar for export," he said.

He also said that Ukraine this refining season produced 2.33 million tonnes of sugar from beets of the 2011 harvest, which fully satisfies the needs of the domestic market.

Yarchuk added that eleven sugar companies and integrated structures produced 83% of the A sugar quota (sugar production for the domestic market).

As reported, referring to Ukrtsukor, Ukraine in 2011 sowed 545,000 hectares with sugar beets and harvested 18.7 million tonnes of beets.

In the past refining season Ukraine produced 1.54 million tonnes of beet sugar.

The capacity of the Ukrainian sugar market is evaluated at 1.86 million tonnes per year.